Hope will not be enough.

Don't waste your vote. Get informed.

If you like the TA vote yes, if not vote no.

Don't vote out of fear of what might happen, worry about what this TA allows to happen.
Don't say "I've had enough, I'm voting yes" That's the ABSOLUTE worst thing you could do.

Remember, you will be living under this TA for AT LEAST 4 years, most likely 6-8. Long after your anemic back pay and pay raise are gone.

 

Getting back to my question, can you give some examples of weak language that will be exploited?

 

At the EWR road show the CAL negotiating rep took an aside and addressed the CAL pilots. He wanted everyone to know that they completely threw out the CAL language and used the UAL language as the baseline. He said "The CAL contract you have been working under will end when a TA passes."

He made it very clear that our new contract language was not only defensible, but proven since UAL guys aren't going to put up with the CAL shenanigans.

I know the CAL brethren out there are unhappy that CAL management is running the new airline, but they will be doing it with the UAL language and I think this is one message the MEC hasn't been successful in getting out to the CAL pilot group.

There are going to be growing pains, but "we" (the new combined pilot group) aren't going to let management do to what they did to the l-CAL pilot group because we have better language.

Remember that the improved language came with a monetary value, and its probably worth more to the CAL pilot group than any specific provision in the contract.

Please attend a roadshow with an open mind.

 

You say not to vote out of fear of what might happen. You then say that you fear that the language is weak and you fear our management taking advantage of it. Is that not voting out of fear?

The bottom line is that we are pilots, we are not contract attorneys. We have a Union that hires attorneys and negotiators to represent our interests. At the end of the day, there is not way (unless you and I attend law school and practice for a number of years) that I can read the contract and say definitively that it is iron clad. My only choice is to ask questions to our negotiating team and attorneys and seek their guidance. Based on the questions that I have asked, I am more than comfortable with our position going forward. You may not have that comfort, but have you asked?

My guess is that you haven't asked. I base this on the fact that you don't seem to trust our Union and their "kool aid." Well, I hate to break it to you, but if this is voted down, our Union will be bringing you the next JCBA. Will you trust them then?

 

Hockeypilot...it's too hard to read anything you write without you whining and bashing your old place of employment (RAH). Please stick to what you're good at.

 

CAL profit sharing, CAL hiring, CAL training by CBT, LOA 25, etc. The UAL sabre rattling is deafening. Not sure our DNA is really that different from each other. I've heard often the "UAL language is settled" phrase. Someone should vote how they wish, but it's a bit of a leap of faith to vote yes based on this premise.

 

As someone who has flown under both contracts, the overall language may differ widely, but both are full of ambigous terms such as may, attempt, in most instances. I wouldn't put much value in using legacy United's.

 

There are no contractual provisions that stop CAL from hiring, paying profit sharing, training, etc. We can't fight what your current contract says the company can do because our contract doesn't prevent it.

LOA 25 only potentially INCREASES longevity pay for furloughees. Potentially up to full DOH. Current contract provides ZERO longevity. This LOA increases that.

 

I haven't flown under CAL's contract, but the things my buddies over there tell me that management does to them, we don't experience on the UAL side because of the contractual differences. Yes I agree that many of the people left are CAL management, but the contract is what it is.

We just have to decide to enforce our protections and not let them try to "interpret" their own meanings.

 

I pray then, that an MEC is elected whose answer to all contract violations won't be "fly now, grieve later", which is what you hear regularly at CAL.