Has anyone else noticed that it seems like no matter what we do as a union to try and get the company to staff and schedule the airline rationally, they still fail?

We have rigs, we have caps on line value, and now more than ever we have financial penalties to the company for having to SRM and JRM. Still we have major shortages with reserves flying over 85 hours and daily SRM on some fleets. I know of two EWR 737 captains who are getting pay months over $40,000 simply by waiting for the calls for premium pay. Neither are killing themselves as they are getting their existing trip replaced at premium pay to come to work for an earlier trip as the company kicks the proverbial can down the road.

As a 777 FO I had a similar situation happen in Jan when they ran out of crews twice. Both times I was called in for an earlier trip. I didn't work a day extra but with one week of vacation made over $24,000.

Don't get me wrong I'll take the extra money, as it's time to pay the next semesters college tuition, but it's just crazy to talk about charging us for our passes to save money when these staffing shortages are costing them a boat load.

 

I'm sure the bean counters have it figured out. It's easier to pay some guys a little extra than to cover the guarantee, medical benefits, and B-plan of a bunch of new hires. As long as guys keep jumping at SRM, they will keep offering.

 

It's obviously not cheaper when pilots are making double their pay for flying the same number of trips. In my case I made $8,000 more to fly the exact same hours I was scheduled to fly. All I did was agree to fly trips a few days earlier than my original ones.

I would agree with you if we were just talking about guys picking up and killing themselves but that's not the case. It like one guy paying $24,500 for the same car that costs $16,000. I don't care how good of bean counters you have that does not make economic sense.

I'm guessing that why we took in more money than DAL but made 1.7B less.

 

Bingo...it is hard for some people to see the negative manpower implications of all this SRM/overtime flying.
We are not union members, UCH by design has turned this pilot group into individual contractors.

 

Again you are missing my point. It isn't cheaper when guys are getting paid more for the exact same amount of hours. If you are talking about straight extra time pickups you are correct, but that's not all of what's going on.

Not to point out the obvious but the joint union negotiated the SRM provisions. CAL had nothing like that in our prior contracts. We as a collective group voted this contract in.

 

The MBA a-holes who run this place have been lining their pockets for doing an absolute embarrassment of a job for A LONG time, if a pilot can make more money for doing the same work- I say go for it. Picking up extra to cover for a shortfall is a different story, personally I am not interested in helping any of these idiots cover their tracks. Let the VP culling begin.

 

Imagine what it would be like if there were no limits and we were free to do whatever we wanted and the company could work us to death as long as they paid a premium. If we turned that switch on tomorrow, how long would the stagnation/furloughs ensue?

 

It is not that we are short of pilots. We are not. We might actually be overstaffed. The current problem is we have too many pilots in the wrong place, doing &%$ all for monthly guarantee.

I believe the plan for the summer is to increase block hours on the 76T and Bus fleets, as the 737 fleet is not properly staffed. They are currently contracting a huge number of 737 sims in MIA, but we lack the instructors to cover the increase in training. A large number of the sims are going empty, even though we already paid for them.

Welcome to another UAL goat rope. It never ends.

 

If every pilot only flies the hour amount he is initially awarded, there is nothing the idiots in management can do except fix the problem on their end. If a guy is awarded 82 hours, flies 82 hours, and makes 120 hours....more power to him.

 

Todd, you guys didn't have any kind of SRM for premium pay at all?