Oz, I realize Diesel is a crossover, thus my last sentence that I believe he was not part of that group who extended with a phone call. I know it happened. I heard it right from the mouths of those who did it on a very regular basis, with a gain of tens of thousands of extra income per year.
Diesel, I too would very much like to see more flexibility, and I believe that could be done. It would require oversite by union staff to ensure it wasn't abused like it has been on both sides in years past. We don't have that privilege-yet.
Wolf, I don't doubt the majority of schedulers and pilots are straight shooters. There are the 5%er's in all offices though. Did you (not you personally) not have more direct access to your schedulers in the past? Did you hear about the Falcon gang who got caught and terminated? Or the lenghty repos that coincidentally had a return repo weeks/days later? Why do you think we can't dead head on empty legs anymore. Maybe a typical knee jerk reaction, but the abuse was there. It's a lot tougher to police a much bigger crowd I guess, and for that I truely appreciate the sadness for losing that small, tight knit group previously known as NJI.
As far as eliminating certain LOA provisions, as far as I know of (not much, BTW), the only thing any of us are interested in is removing the GIV fence. The only way the vast majority of us would agree is if no one gets bumped or loses a thing. In fact, the goal is to bring everyone UP, not get even or make others pay. Staple? No way. The point is moot anyway. The union leadership is a very small group, and any agreement takes the majority of a much larger group.
Yes, there is a very small number of SICs who will be waiting a very long time to upgrade into a G, but far less than would have been the case had RTS not upgaded nearly every pilot on the property. That's fine-what was done is done. And the pay will be the same for every captain until the 15 yr(?) point. Unfortunately not everyone will be happy with every aspect of any contract. If you've lost the ability for more to feel better about their employment conditions, I am sad for that loss as well. Let's make it better for all in the future.