Astar canceled flights(abx to the rescue)

[flyinboxes]

Canceled 2 weekend trips.....no crews. Lot of sick pilots. Thankfully ABX stepped up and covered at least one flight. Thanks. Wouldn't want those yellow boxes to miss. 2 steps forward, one step back. geez.

Heard the Dell account is gone........oh my, there won't be anything left to "give" to UPS. I think thats only around 350,000 lbs a night, oh well. Oh and bye bye Wal Mart. DHL just pissed off the WORLDS LARGEST RETAILER and they said adios. This plan is coming together nicely for DHL wouldn't you guys say?

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

This plan is coming together nicely for DHL wouldn't you guys say?

If the Astar pilots are trying to give DHL a reason to accellerate their plans to transfer the flying to UPS, I'd say they're doing a fine job of it.

A fine job, indeed!

 

[eatme]

Canceled 2 weekend trips.....no crews. Lot of sick pilots. Thankfully ABX stepped up and covered at least one flight. Thanks. Wouldn't want those yellow boxes to miss. 2 steps forward, one step back. geez.

Heard the Dell account is gone........oh my, there won't be anything left to "give" to UPS. I think thats only around 350,000 lbs a night, oh well. Oh and bye bye Wal Mart. DHL just pissed off the WORLDS
LARGEST RETAILER and they said adios. This plan is coming together nicely for DHL wouldn't you guys say?

Ok where did they go then?

 

[rotor&wing]

If the Astar pilots are trying to give DHL a reason to accellerate their plans to transfer the flying to UPS, I'd say they're doing a fine job of it.

A fine job, indeed!

You're not here Jim, you have no clue as to what's going on.

 

[cheyflyer]

If the Astar pilots are trying to give DHL a reason to accellerate their plans to transfer the flying to UPS, I'd say they're doing a fine job of it.

A fine job, indeed!

Can you blame them! Sick Time....use it....or else!

 

[DC8CRIVER]

If the Astar pilots are trying to give DHL a reason to accellerate their plans to transfer the flying to UPS, I'd say they're doing a fine job of it.

A fine job, indeed!

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS LIAR.

For what it's worth, Whistln' Dan is a former DHL Airways pilot who was fired several times for just blowing off work too many times to count. During our previous contract negotiations, our negotiators had to barter with the company to get "Dan" his job back. We ended up giving a huge pay concession to recover his job - a gesture that he NEVER ONCE acknowledged or thanked ANY pilot for. He was always a weak pilot (I've flown with him) and he was finally terminated once and for all for failing a checkride with the FAA on board after many, many restarts.

I have no idea what he is doing now other than waiting for our union to get his job back - again - while he sits on his tailpipe and insults the very people who gave him too many chances to count.

I really do not believe in personal flames on message boards (I've never done this and never will again) and have tolerated Dan's (not his real name, obviously) rants and half baked opinions for a long time, now. But when he flames his former fellow pilots about actions of which he has absolutely NO information, I'm drawing the line. He is shooting from the hip and has shot himself in the nuts in the process this time.

Astar has been short staffed for quite some time, now. As with ABX and many other airlines, they are attempting to walk the fine line between "just barely enough" staffing and "not enough" staffing. They have been operating by using JM and FEA for quite a while (as has ABX - so you guys can relate) and have been able to staff to the "just barely enough" level until now.

What has changed is a new Astar company policy of assigning NO JM or FEA assignments AT ALL. In an effort to save money, they have been able to get by with this change until the other night when their staffing model failed.

The reason that ABX is now (and has been) covering our trips when we have broken planes and staffing problems is that ABX has spare airplanes and pilots; Astar does not. Why there are spares over there and no spares over here is a topic for another thread, but obviously we would cover our own trips if we had the equipment to do so.

Again, I don't condone personal flames and have been extremely tolerant of this guy until now. It's one thing when a pilot from one airline defames a pilot from another. Not nice, but tolerable when you realize the context.

I draw the line when a thankless leach ignorantly draws blood from those who have done the most to help him.

8

 

[nitefr8dog]

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS LIAR.

For what it's worth, Whistln' Dan is a former DHL Airways pilot who was fired several times for just blowing off work too many times to count. During our previous contract negotiations, our negotiators had to barter with the company to get "Dan" his job back. We ended up giving a huge pay concession to recover his job - a gesture that he NEVER ONCE acknowledged or thanked ANY pilot for. He was always a weak pilot (I've flown with him) and he was finally terminated once and for all for failing a checkride with the FAA on board after many, many restarts.

I have no idea what he is doing now other than waiting for our union to get his job back - again - while he sits on his tailpipe and insults the very people who gave him too many chances to count.

I really do not believe in personal flames on message boards (I've never done this and never will again) and have tolerated Dan's (not his real name, obviously) rants and half baked opinions for a long time, now. But when he flames his former fellow pilots about actions of which he has absolutely NO information, I'm drawing the line. He is shooting from the hip and has shot himself in the nuts in the process this time.

Astar has been short staffed for quite some time, now. As with ABX and many other airlines, they are attempting to walk the fine line between "just barely enough" staffing and "not enough" staffing. They have been operating by using JM and FEA for quite a while (as has ABX - so you guys can relate) and have been able to staff to the "just barely enough" level until now.

What has changed is a new Astar company policy of assigning NO JM or FEA assignments AT ALL. In an effort to save money, they have been able to get by with this change until the other night when their staffing model failed.

The reason that ABX is now (and has been) covering our trips when we have broken planes and staffing problems is that ABX has spare airplanes and pilots; Astar does not. Why there are spares over there and no spares over here is a topic for another thread, but obviously we would cover our own trips if we had the equipment to do so.

Again, I don't condone personal flames and have been extremely tolerant of this guy until now. It's one thing when a pilot from one airline defames a pilot from another. Not nice, but tolerable when you realize the context.

I draw the line when a thankless leach ignorantly draws blood from those who have done the most to help him.

8

DC8, I can assure you we do not have any spare pilots you guy's staff at twice our crew numbers and our sick calls are through the roof! We are staffing with JRM and charging DHL for it!

 

[DC8CRIVER]

DC8, I can assure you we do not have any spare pilots you guy's staff at twice our crew numbers and our sick calls are through the roof! We are staffing with JRM and charging DHL for it!

nitefr8dog,

OK. So you guys are operating the way we did a couple of weeks ago. However, you DO have the spare planes and crews that can fly (albeit at JRM rates), so you're the ones that get the call when our SOC cancels a flight.

The point is that we're not engaged in any job action. Most of our pilots are scrambling for extra flight time to pay down debts prior to hitting the bricks.

To the contrary, the company IS engaged in a job action of sorts. For them to prohibit any FEA or JM flying is contrary to any mode of operation that they have used in the entire history of DHL Airways/Astar Air Cargo.

These are trying times and there will be a continuous increase of bizarre and stupid moves by our management groups. My goal right now is to prepare myself and my family for the extremely difficult year ahead and keep myself and my crew alive in what has become a very, very dangerous operation.

And the last thing we need - any of us - is uninformed flamers stirring up untrue crap in an already extremely stressful time.

8

PS. Glad to hear you are charging DHL for the overtime. We would if we could. Make them pay whatever you can. I'd like to squeeze the bastards for every last dime I could.

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

During our previous contract negotiations, our negotiators had to barter with the company to get "Dan" his job back. We ended up giving a huge pay concession to recover his job - a gesture that he NEVER ONCE acknowledged or thanked ANY pilot for.

I'm calling BS on this one.

Your previous contract was negotiated throughout 1997 and 1998, and signed on December 26, 1998. "WD" went off the schedule in June, 2000 and was back on it in April of 2001.

Look at your old schedules and seniority lists, or call Beth at HQ. I think they're allowed to confirm changes in status of any members.

Care to explain why you gave up a "huge pay concession" to "recover a job" for a guy 3 years before he was fired? Was your negotiating committee clairvoyant, or are you just talking out your a**, as usual? And why should a guy "give thanks" to anybody for something that never happened?

 

[rotor&wing]

I'm calling BS on this one.

Your previous contract was negotiated throughout 1997 and 1998, and signed on December 26, 1998. "WD" went off the schedule in June, 2000 and was back on it in April of 2001.

Look at your old schedules and seniority lists, or call Beth at HQ. I think they're allowed to confirm changes in status of any members.

Care to explain why you gave up a "huge pay concession" to "recover a job" for a guy 3 years before he was fired? Was your negotiating committee clairvoyant, or are you just talking out your a**, as usual? And why should a guy "give thanks" to anybody for something that never happened?

What actually happened was our min hour guarantee got reduced to 64 hours in exchange for getting your job back Jim. The union had a grevience on the SBS system not working properly as per the contract and we wanted to keep our higher min guarantee until the company fixed it. Our MEC chairman at the time, in a last minute deal agreed to drop the grevience in exchange to rehire you ( I think there were a couple of other items also).

 

[LARRY H. JUNIOR]

dan:
i am calling b.s. on you. you are a tool. you screwed your fellow pilots.
get a life. rotor and wing is right. you are wrong jim m. i remember the whole thing.

 

[flyinboxes]

Ok where did they go then?

Dell is going back to UPS, Wal Mart I don't know but trust me, it is gone. I will ask as the last trip is in a few days. Fayettenam was nice while it lasted. It really doesn't matter since it's all "gone".

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

dan:
i am calling b.s. on you. you are a tool. you screwed your fellow pilots.
get a life. rotor and wing is right. you are wrong jim m. i remember the whole thing.

Hey LARRY...

You see that little grey button on he left side of your keyboard, the one that says "shift?" It makes lower-case letters into capitals. Press it briefly whenever you type the first letter of a sentence, or whenever you're using "I" as a first-person, singular personal pronoun.

(That means, "Whenever you're talking about yourself, LARRY.")

Doing just that one little thing will make your resume much more credible and your cover letters more coherent.

It will also reinforce in the minds of prospective employers that not all Astar pilots are blathering idiots.

No charge for this one, LARRY. I'm always glad to help out a fellow pilot.

 

[LARRY H. JUNIOR]

OK Jim I'll play your game.

You no showed 4 times because you don't want to be here. Then you have the balls to ask Alpa to get your job back, at MY expense. You are a thief.........

YOU SCREWED YOUR FELLOW PILOTS AND SCREWED THE COMPANY

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

What actually happened was our min hour guarantee got reduced to 64 hours in exchange for getting your job back Jim. The union had a grevience on the SBS system not working properly as per the contract and we wanted to keep our higher min guarantee until the company fixed it. Our MEC chairman at the time, in a last minute deal agreed to drop the grevience in exchange to rehire you

That has got to be THE most assinine thing I've ever read on FI.

If what you are saying were true-that the union gave up hundreds of credit-hours spread over 500 members to save ONE job-it would have been grounds for de-certifying the union. Even if ALPA wre not de-certified, it would almost certainly have led to a recall of your MEC officers and a lawsuit to hold in abeyance the LOA that created the change.

Whatever your personal feelings about the individuals involved, neither ALPA, KF (contract administrator) or DB (MEC Chairman) were that stupid.

(I think there were a couple of other items also)

Yea, a couple of minor, insignificant little things, like implementation of a flight pay loss bank, changes to bid line guarantee, and installation of an entirely new crew management system. It's all spelled out in "Looking Back and Moving Forward" issue #4, which I have before me.

I won't quote the entire document, as it is 8 pages long and of no interest to anybody now. But there is one paragraph that pretty well sums up what was going on, and what brought about the reduction to 64 hours. In the words of DB, the MEC chairman;

"Regardless, the heat was on and the Company wanted relief from the 78-hour guarantees, hence, the decision to go live with Mercury [Crew Management System], call it operational, and reduce the guarantee to 64-hours. This was going to happen whether we liked it or not. It simply came down to appealling to the company that, while we understood their desire to reduce the guarantee, they were considerably less than honorable in their approach. At this point, time was also a huge factor. The whole situation required that a decision be made within a three-day period. In short, we did have a window of opportunity during which time we could salvage something in return for the lowered guarantee, or we could choose to take a "wait and see what happens" attitude and end up with nothing but a questionable grievance [regarding bid line guarantee]. So the MEC made the decision to go ahead with LOA #13"

There it is. The company wanted 64 hours and were willing to implement a known-faulty CMS to get it. The union knew they wouldn't win the arbitration so they didn't fight it and went for other things instead. Settling open grievances may have been one of those things (there are usually quite a few open at any given time) but they played no part in the MEC's decision to accept the 64 hour guarantee.

I'd be happy to forward a copy of this to you, but I don't think you'd read it. You're like my neighbor the religous fanatic - you've held to a particular version of a story for so long that you now fear that to question or change it in any way would make you seem an idiot. So you don't, and thus, remain one.

 

[LARRY H. JUNIOR]

ok dan, last post:

anyone who no shows 4 plus times for trips OBVIOUSLY does not want to be here. plain and simple. you never wanted to work. you screwed the company many times. why they kept taking you back is beyond me. all i know is when someone no shows at 330am for a trip, it puts crew scheduling in a bine.

there will be no more posts

chime in rotor and wing

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

OK Jim I'll play your game.

You no showed 4 times because you don't want to be here. Then you have the balls to ask Alpa to get your job back, at MY expense. You are a thief.........

YOU SCREWED YOUR FELLOW PILOTS AND SCREWED THE COMPANY

I forgot, "ALPA" should be all caps, like on the letters they send you.

Everything ALPA does is "at your expense" LARRY. Remember those guys who stuck the "For Sale" sign in the window of their plane? Astar wanted to fire them, but ALPA intervened, "at your expense." How about the pod strikes, tail strikes, GNE's, runway incursions, high-speed aborts, abuse of sick call and fatigue policy, training failures, missed trips due to missed J/S...ALL have been helped by ALPA, "at your expense." Are THEY "thieves" as well?

And that's just the stuff that's happened ON-duty. How much of my dues have gone to help guys who made bad decisions OFF-duty? When ALPA Aeromed helps a guy regain his physical after a cycle accident, is that person "stealing" from those of us who don't ride?

Maybe a person of your impeccable character and unquestioned skill doesn't need a union. If so, have you thought about applying to Key Lime Air? They're looking for guys with Metro experience, HS diploma "preferred"

With all your 727 time, you'd be "The Big Fish" there, LARRY...

 

[fob727]

Dan....I think that "cycle accident" you refer to is about me. I don't ever remember getting ALPA involved. Get your facts straight.

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

Dan....I think that "cycle accident" you refer to is about me. I don't ever remember getting ALPA involved. Get your facts straight.

If ALPA Aeromed wasn't involved, it wasn't about you. Since you apparently didn't need any special assistance in getting your medical back, I'll assume you've mended, which is a good thing.

This is "Flightinfo.com" "Facts" have no place here, and only open the door to personal attacks.

 

[Jetglow]

Hey Dan...I think you wistle out your buttocks.

You are just a TURD