Short Bus Drive

"unbelievable"? Maybe they feel that it is a UAL thing, and not being a new hire at UAL, it doesn't "count".

I don't know why you are putting new hire in quotes. That is what we are at CAL....

horrido27

Here's an honest question from a Continental Pilot. It sounds like the " 8 Ball" is a United tradition. I like that (Traditions rock~)
But the question is this-
How and who brought it over to the CAL Side?

To me... if it's a "New Hire United" Tradition, it should not have been started/brought over to the CAL Side. United Furloughees being offered "New Hire" Positions don't really fall into the "Traditional" New Hire category.
Do/did the tradition continue when United was recalling their own pilots back in the day?
How did it get to the first class>? Did the UAL MEC Chair or someone from UAL ALPA come over and (with) the CAL ALPA Reps start the tradition?

Hopefully in years to come, the NewHire/Furloughees will have a special bond within this company. I know that I welcome them whenever I see them and am glad to have them here.

I can't comment on the individuals who made their 8 Ball decision.. that's up to them to defend their position and without knowing all the facts, I would be doing a disservice to comment on them.

This merger is/has been a mess from Day 1. Sad thing is, as much as I blame the company and poor management.. I also blame the Union and National.
Hopefully, once we have a JCBA & SLI (in 2013-2014?!) we can move forward and get a Union that represent us as a whole. With real leadership and people who are looking out for our interests and not their own or Nationals.

Just my opinion.
Motch

757Driver

I, personally, think its an awesome tradition that should survive the merger and be done at both properties until we are truly combined.

Very cool and old school !!

Fujipower

Motch

My first paycheck of the month is "new hire" pay. My vacation is "new hire" vacation. My indoc portion of training was "new hire" indoc. It was fine, but the instructors themselves admitted it is for new new hires and not 12 year FOs. My sick leave balance is "new hire" sick leave balance - my UAL balance is still sitting at UAL. Now there are plenty of things that are not "new hire" but I can find a lot of CAL documents that say we are "new hires."

All of the classes in the last year have been populated with UAL furloughees treated as "new hires" and that is why I would guess that the ball was brought back to life.

It's a great tradition and a bit of fun and only a good thing for the class and for the pilot group IMHO. Two losers and sadly from the UAL side tried to ruin it because they were too cool for school - I was standing 5 feet from them listening to their lameness pour out of them - it was embarassing.

Respectfully

horrido27

Fugi..
Thanks for the response. But the question still remains- who brought it over to the "CAL" side because it's not a Continental tradition.

Short Bus Drive

Fuji,
What were their reasons why?
Was it because of the "stigma", or "work"? Or did they feel that it was a UAL NEW HIRE (no quotes) tradition?
Just curious...

Fujipower

Like I said, since the classes have been populated with all UAL furloughs for at least the last year or so, I believe that it was brought over by one of the early UAL furlough classes. I believe the reason why is probably because CAL was calling and treating us as "new hires" and probably to keep the tradition alive. Just guessing.

Fujipower

Consider that each class doesn't necessarily have the most junior UAL furlough in it because folks were coming back at different times for different reasons like mil leave etc. There was a guy in my class that was very junior overall at UAL and these two guys were senior to him. So they felt that the junior guy in my class should keep the ball. Now that defeats the entire point of the ball - it's the junior guy in the class. With real new hire classes this scenario never happens. And the junior guy in my class was going to be in Newark so it made no sense.

The ball lives on and that's what's cool. A couple of losers can't stop a good thing like this tradition.

47dog

Horrido,
CAL no longer exists. It's UAL. There is the former CAL operation, but CAL is legally gone.........just saying.

Talk to somebody in person about the value of the ball ceremony. It shouldn't be discussed here.

Next thread

Dog

APC225

Look on the first page of the FOM. CAL still exists. Legally.

Tradition is great and the eight ball is one we can all adopt.

Federal Aviation Administration - Airline Certificate Information - Detail View