The message wasn't intended to divide the pilot groups.

A few months ago the CAL pilots received a company memo directing them to only use "United Airlines" in their announcements. The following week, JP asked the pilots at L-CAL to include in their announcements that the plane was being operated by "Continental - ALPA pilots."

I won't bother to explain why he asked the pilots to do this, as it seems obvious.

Sorry to interrupt the witch hunt with common sense. Please continue.

 

Huh. I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. I'm disappointed to hear that. Not the most unifying message from a group that is protesting loudly about the lack of unity.

 

I freaked out when I saw your formula and had a flashback to college calculus, but I agree with your assessment.

 

Not being flippant here, but it's not obvious to me. I would never dream of making the distinction between the two in my announcement. This is a micro example of a macro problem in my estimation. JP beats the Unity drum, but then does NOTHING to promote unity.

Look, I detest this merger. (Not piling on you directly here, by the way, just ranting away) The ONLY thing about it that I like is the new soap. I'm not kidding, your soap kicks butt! I have no interest in flying to CLE, EWR, IAH or GUA. I can't stand the guppy and its tight cockpit and 1 jumpseat. I hate more narrowbodys vs. widebodys. My seniority will almost surely be diluted. I thought we would get a management team that wanted to run and grow an airline, but your management is just like our management was. None of this is an "ours is better than yours" rant. For some people, there are some GREAT gets in this merger. Our guys that live in CLE, EWR, and IAH have to be STOKED! Some folks LOVE the guppy, etc. etc. It just doesn't have any benefit for me personally. But here is the thing, it happened. Nothing I can do about it, so the chips are going to fall where they may. I'm not going to keep on saying that I'm proudly flying a L-UAL aircraft, and I'm not going to go back and hash out who's SCABS are worse. I want a damned contract and I want it NOW. The rest is all chaff and fluff.

 

I TOTALLY agree. The J IS important. I'm not sure why they aren't asking for release either. Publicly they state it's because they don't think it's the best course of action at this time. Behind closed doors I'll bet it's because they felt they didn't have a say in the decision, despite JH's months of beating the drum. Whatever the reason is, I'd ask them point blank: "You don't like the JH plan. What are YOU doing to get me a contract RIGHT NOW". If JP had filed for release, that's damned sure what I would be asking my reps if they weren't on board.

 

I don't think it was JP who asked our pilots to do that. I think it was just an IAH thing.

I prefer NOT to do that in my announcements. I don't even tell them welcome aboard to UAL whatever.....I don't get paid enough to make those kind of touchey feeley - feel good- warm all over- ya hoo announcements. I give them the ETA, and the weather. That's it. That is all. They can figure out for themselves what airline they are on by reading the inflight magazine or watching co-worker jeff in his welcome aboard video.

I say again. We don't get paid enough to do PR work with PA's.

 

It's been mentioned at least twice in two separate Union updates.

 

Read below....

To bolster what your saying.....I didn't look too hard, but I believe I came up with one of the references in which you were referring to.

CAL-MEC Position Report
(March 30th, 2012)

**Quote by Capt. J. Pierce**
Finally this week, I want to talk about honesty and professionalism. I take offense when it is suggested that telling the truth is unprofessional. I think we all do. This week, one of the IAH ACPs took it upon himself to say that pilots who have mentioned that their flights are being operated by Continental pilots, on their PAs, were being unprofessional. I find considerable fault with his claim. The fact is that until the JCBA is complete and the SLI process is done, CAL and UAL are still separate subsidiary airlines, under one holding company. We are still Continental pilots working under the Continental collective bargaining agreement. I know that management is irritated that some of us won’t participate in their attempts to fool the public and our passengers into thinking that we are one big happy airline, but the fact is that it is not true. If they want to say so truthfully, get the contract done.

The truth is that I look forward to the day that I can say that we really are all United pilots, as that would mean that the contract is done and the SLI is complete, but we are not there yet. It is pretty obvious that this has become an issue for management and I am not going to ask you to put yourself at risk over this issue. I will simply remind management that our FOM provides guidance on the general rules that should be followed when using the PA. The second bullet point tells us to “Tell the Truth.” It does not say; however, that we should hide the truth.

Added more.....

Council 171 (IAH) Update Email "Quote":
Capt "Rep" E.H. (March 2nd, 2012)
Welcome Aboard
“Welcome aboard flight 243, service to XXX . This flight is proudly operated by the pilots and flight attendants of Continental Airlines” - Any questions?

 

This is irritating management? Then I'm fine with it.
If this airline was called Continental we'd probably be doing the same thing.

 

Yea I am sure they are losing sleep over this every night, lol