I do not understand this culture everybody talks about. We all fly airplanes for a living. You all seem to think this is a fraternity or something. Go to work do your job go home. It isn't rocket science. I have flown different airplanes and been trained by different companies. Bottom line is that it is all the same. At this level, instructors should have little effect on your ability, either your a pilot or your not. How you keep the shiny side up matters little to me. I know what keeps my pax safe, and that is all that matters. In my opinion of course!!! So please stop saying "culture" as there is no such thing, it is just something people use to describe "different".

PV;
Sorry dude, there is no growth. We have shrank every year since the merger.

The world doesn't work in straight lines, it works in cycles. There were massive furloughs in late 70's to mid 80's, early to mid 90's, 9/11, and the financial crisis. 4 huge industry furloughs in 30 years.

Oh yeah, it is different this time……………….

Just keep telling yourself that.

It has been a little over 5 years since the last economic downturn. Guess how long till the next one?

Probe-
Not all airlines go through the same process. UAL shrank for many years while Continental grew. Not trying to start anything but just because your company went through something doesn't mean everyone did.

How far are you looking back? Past the shiny new jets? :D

WADR, there is a significant cultural difference between the two airlines. El Heffe used to chirp about it all the time and he's been trying to squash it ever since he took the tiller. It goes much deeper than training and how you manipulate the plane. Let me ask you this, how many grievances did LCAL file as compared to LUAL prior to the merger?

CAL shrank every year from 2006-2010. SEC filings showed CAL's ASM shrank every year. Plus a furlough. Trying to paint a different picture because after the merger the CAL side of United was used to replace flying previously done by UAL isn't growth.

I have friends at CAL who were Captains in 2007 and back to FOs in 2010.

CAL wasn't growing. They were losing money. 9 of 11 quarters prior to the merger.

Its a huge difference. By more than a factor of 10. L-UAL pilots have filed and won more grievances for contract violations by management than than L-CAL ever did.

I had what I believed to be an illegal assignment on an IOE and I told the OE desk I wouldn't fly it and was going to file a grievance. She took it seriously and changed the ID to what I told her was legal per the contract.

People at L-CAL told me they didn't file because they didn't think they would win. So they let management push them around and violate the contract.

HUGE cultural difference when you are in a union.

Valid points, all. But for some not so obvious reasons along with some of the cultural differences. The first and foremost reason why CALALPA was mostly unsuccessful supporting Contracts '97 and '02 was a Retained Management's Rights clause that allowed the company to do anything that wasn't directly conflicting with the written CBA.

Second, and much more nefarious, was the direct defection of ALPA negotiators to Management after the previous 2 contracts. What became glaringly apparent by 2005 was that any grievance that went to SBA had a high threshold to meet from the retained mgmt rights clause, and then had to withstand the scrutiny of language cross examination by the previous ALPA negotiators who could testify for the company from their ALPA notes for language intent and history.

By 2007 many grievances had been lost directly as a result of these provisions, and focus was redirected less on enforcing Contract '02 in favor of redressing these ills in standalone Section 6 openers.

Then came the merger.

Not sure what you mean about filing grievances. Is that a right of passage or something? Shrinking in 2006 while hiring 16 a week seems to not add up. Furloughing a 147 during contract negotiations and a 787 delay seem to be a little different than your situation. But hey, I am no brain surgeon. But none the less, my original post was toward culture. Are you all a group of American Indians off the reservation trying to get more land. My point is there is no such thing as culture. This is a job. Nothing more. Whether it says United, Continental, or Varney. Trying to say we did better is about as useless as raincoat in a shower. Again, do your job, go home.

Perhaps you ought to speak to some of the LUAL guys who have had the opportunity to fly at both companies. Not just one or two, half a dozen or so.

I could start with the new hire experience at the Jepp statue in DEN, and follow it up with the two days of total stroking, food, booze and welcome that we used to get, but there is SO much more to it than that. If you don't see it, perhaps you will as we try to fix this train wreck.

Do we roll when the company violates the contract or do we fight them via a GRIEVANCE? Do we relax safety standards because its costing Mother U money or do we hold them to a higher standard? Do we simply accept substandard, cheap training or do we take out a full page ad in the WSJ? Do we add gas when dispatch blows it or do we just take the plane and land on fumes? Do we fly airplanes over South America at night without an APU (GEN, PACK, RADAR etc) or do we insist on one? I think that's the culture that most here are discussing.

Again I personally don't get the wine and dine mentality of UAL. This is a job, last thing I need to do is submit my wife to is a night full of old salts talking about the good old days. Don't need a steak dinner before my paycheck. But hey to each is own. Still don't see what any of this has anything to do with what you call culture. If you want brotherhood, or just a good wooden paddle spanking, thinking you should have done it in college. You know before we all grew up. But some people want to be young forever, maybe that should be our new motto instead "friendly skies", served to us by 90 year old flight attentands.