Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone has been in my situation or has some info on this. I've been on property about 6 months and my wife is due with our second child in mid August. I know I don't technically qualify for FMLA from United until I have been here for at least 12 months and flown 500 hours. Someone was telling me the other day that I may be eligible for some FMLA from the state of NJ since I am based there. While getting some pay would obviously be nice, I'm more concerned with getting the time off for the first few weeks after the baby is born. Since the FMLA folks say I'm not eligible, what options do I have? I'm planning on contacting the CPO but I wanted to get all the info I could before doing so. I'd love the put something on the UAL pilot forum but for whatever reason my registration keeps getting rejected. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Check your PM.

Also:http://ual.alpa.org/Committees/Paren...6/Default.aspx

 

So I was in a similar situation to you before the FMLA existed in 1999 when my second daughter was born. The CPO worked with me and I wound up with 3 weeks off for the birth and some time afterwords. My wife was having false labor and was overdue so we didn't know when our new baby was coming into this world but all the false labor and false alarms were getting pretty stressful.

When baby girl number 2 did decide to make her entry it was a good thing I was home. She took a grand total of 1 hour and 57 minutes from start to finish when she finally got the courage up to eject.

Two things I'd do here first I'd talk to your ALPA LEC rep and see what is contractually available to you for this event. After finding out what is and what isn't available I'd talk to your CPO, they can give you a LEV (life event Drop) for things like babies, family illness, graduations, weddings, funerals ETC ETC. They can either give them to you paid via vacation drop or unpaid.

Whether they will give you the LEV or not depends on your CPO but they'd be pretty hard pressed not to work with you during this special time in your life. I am guessing you can get this worked out through the CPO. Just talk to your LEC rep first so that you are armed with some knowledge before talking to management, sometimes the flight mangers don't know the answer so they just say no. Having some knowledge can go a long way in making this happen for you.

I just did an LEV drop for my older daughters high school graduation. Watch out brother the time will fly by.....

 

Thanks guys I really appreciate the advice. Its a bit of a stressful time as I'm a commuter and we don't have any family living around us to help out. My mom is willing to come out once she goes into labor, but can't take several weeks off work in anticipation. I just hope I'm not raising the gear on my way out to LA when the magic happens. Hopefully they won't miss me for a few weeks on reserve. After all, we have 100 FOs vs 50 CAs

 

Just a little FYI. Thinking logically like this, with respect to this wonderful place, won't serve you well going forward.
Congrats and welcome!

 

Right that's because us line pukes don't have the "big picture".

 

Jack Handey would agree.

 

Did James Brown stop touring for the birth of all the babies he created while on tour? I think not!

 

Hey James is that YOUR weekly Message to Howie?

 

Weekly, my friend? You may want to get some medical help.......