Field Standby
 

Anyone have the definition of what that entails. Can't seem to find it in the TA.

Where are you "suppose" to be? What is your require time to push? How do they contact you?

Thanks
Motch

Won't find it in the TA. At L-UAL they use it a lot. You drive to the airport and need to be in Ops at Field Standby report time. Segment is normally 4 hours long. Some domiciles have you sign in. They get in touch if they need you by paging and cell phone.

This is one thing that really peeves me about the TA. It currently pays 5 hours per day. The TA it's for free but after they use you for the second one ... on the third FSB ... they bump your min guarantee. If you sit FSB for three times in the current contract you'd already have 15 hours towards breaking the guarantee. The TA FSB is much cheaper for the Company because:
1) they can target you by making the FSB a 1-day, 2-day, 3-day, or 4-day FSB and assign it to someone who won't get the third FSB to change their guarantee, and
2) with the current FSB language, at least you'd get five hours of pay which makes the decision to go high or low much easier!

We'll see alot more FSB's with the TA.

Current s-UAL contract Field Stby is worth 5 hours per day hard time.

they used to build lines of just field stby and the local senior guys used to bid these. Never flew a single trip while on field standby. I used to bring a good book to OPS, dressed in civilian clothing and kept the monkey suit in the car just in case. Got paid 90 hours for 18 days of FSB and was home every day.

I agree that the JCBA screwed this up for us. I am still a NO!

We have field standby language is C'02 but it's seldom, if ever used.

Is it better to have 5 hours of pay towards MPG or 1 hour of add pay after two events? Debatable. The JNC has analyzed it and insists that the 1 hour of add pay after two events provides more value in terms of pay and utilization than the current systems and UAL and CAL.

From my own experience at my previous airline, which did use FSB,
the only time they'd ever use FSB was during the slow months when they were overstaffed. Typically, it was near impossible to break guarantee at those times, so the add pay would be more beneficial.

This is one of those sections that is vague for a reason. It's to our advantage to not define these things in hard terms.

With FSB, you are not required to make any specific push times, nor is it defined where you will be at the airport or by what methodology they must be able to contact you. Common sense tells me that the employee parking lot is part of the airport and that my cell phone works as a means to contact me. If my phone isn't working, then I'll keep an ear out for a PA. If I hear it, I'll check it out.

Personally, I don't like to give an inch when it comes to interpreting the contract. If it's vague, I'll make my own interpretation and if the company doesn't agree, we can discuss it.

Or the company could use all the reserves twice without paying anyone anything extra. Good deal for them. :mad:

Reserve rules alone are a "no" vote.

That could do that now at CAL, but they don't. Remember that once your four hours is up, you are done for the day. It's insane to burn through reserves in that manner.

However, if that's what they want to do, let 'em. They will quickly discover that they don't have enough pilots to cover open trips because all their reserves are not available. This means that they either stop the practice or hire more pilots.

OBJECTION: LEADING THE WITNESS

They do NOT use FSB "all the time". They used it all the time back in the mid to late 90's. Now it's quite rare to get FSB. It's usually a holiday thing that they use in categories where they are fat on reserves. Why? Because in 4 hours, they lose you for the day. They would rather have you on the hook for 15 hours, and know you are getting to the airport within 3 hours or so then have you close by and only get you for 4 hours.

Yes, it pays 5 hours a day.... towards your guarantee. As mentioned above, they typically will only use it if you are in a category that has spare bodies, and it doesn't hurt them to burn a reserve in 4 hours instead of 15. So in those categories, how many guys break guarantee? If you don't, that 5 hours a day does you NO good.

The TA says you get Add pay on top of MPG after the 3rd FSB OR short call. Now THAT you can almost bank on getting every month unless you are actively trying to pick up trips on every single one of your reserve days.

Lee

I agree.. I used to bid it in Ord. Read some books, the newspaper, watch some tv, then go home.

If they did contact me it was via cell phone. Usually it was for a show time during the standby time. If no call by one minute after... Or sometimes already in the crew bus, I was gone.

Eric

It's fun to reminisce about the good ol' days. Field standby lines and such. I have been on reserve for the last 6 years. Didn't even see a FSB assignment until the last 2. When you tell somebody in ops that you're on FSB, they ask "we still do those?" Of course here in Denver, you have to really work it to break 70, so the FSB is gratis 90% of the time. Kinda like the mega number of short calls assigned per day, CS does it because they can. Plenty of bodies on RSV these days. With this new contract there will be a financial penalty for assigning unnecessary short calls and FSB.

Sled