A few questions for the Jet Blue pilots on this forum

[CAL EWR B737]

I have heard some rumors and I would appreciate if you could clarify them for me. Please don't take any of my questions the wrong way, I'm not taking shots at anyone I would just appreciate some honest answers. As a side note I bought tickets for myself and family two summers ago on Jet Blue and enjoyed flying on your airline. You have a good product.

1: Does Jet Blue make pilots sign a five year employment contract?

2: I have heard that some pilots are not getting their contracts renewed, any truth to this? Are there more than just a few this is happening too? If this is true how do the rank and file pilots feel about this?

3: Why does Jet Blue need an employment contract? If you work for a carrier that doesn't have a collective bargaining agent (union) and they don't have a collective bargaining agreement (contract) isn't it hire and fire at will except for discrimination of some kind?

4: Does having an employment contract make it harder to organize and get a union on the property?

5: Is it true Jet Blue doesn't provide a system seniority list with DOB to the pilot group?

6: Is there any talk of union at Jet Blue?

7: Lastly is EWR a co domicile with JFK and LGA or is it flown as part of a pairing from other domicles?

Thank you in advance for you responses. Please no condescending or arrogant replies just looking for some factual information. I think there is a lot of misinformation out there.

 

[Neil Eubich]

I have heard some rumors and I would appreciate if you could clarify them for me. Please don't take any of my questions the wrong way, I'm not taking shots at anyone I would just appreciate some honest answers. As a side note I bought tickets for myself and family two summers ago on Jet Blue and enjoyed flying on your airline. You have a good product.

1: Does Jet Blue make pilots sign a five year employment contract?

2: I have heard that some pilots are not getting their contracts renewed, any truth to this? Are there more than just a few this is happening too? If this is true how do the rank and file pilots feel about this?

3: Why does Jet Blue need an employment contract? If you work for a carrier that doesn't have a collective bargaining agent (union) and they don't have a collective bargaining agreement (contract) isn't it hire and fire at will except for discrimination of some kind?

4: Does having an employment contract make it harder to organize and get a union on the property?

5: Is it true Jet Blue doesn't provide a system seniority list with DOB to the pilot group?

6: Is there any talk of union at Jet Blue?

7: Lastly is EWR a co domicile with JFK and LGA or is it flown as part of a pairing from other domicles?

Thank you in advance for you responses. Please no condescending or arrogant replies just looking for some factual information. I think there is a lot of misinformation out there.

Dude...the fact that you have 80 posts on this forum tells me you know how to navigate it a little bit. Based on that, I would erase this post and do a search of jetblue..I assure you that you will get the answers to all of your questions without having to put up with the sarcastic responses you're going to get.......

Good luck......

 

[Maj]

CAL EWR B737I have heard some rumors and I would appreciate if you could clarify them for me. Please don't take any of my questions the wrong way, I'm not taking shots at anyone I would just appreciate some honest answers. As a side note I bought tickets for myself and family two summers ago on Jet Blue and enjoyed flying on your airline. You have a good product.

1: Does Jet Blue make pilots sign a five year employment contract? Yes

2: I have heard that some pilots are not getting their contracts renewed, any truth to this? Are there more than just a few this is happening too? If this is true how do the rank and file pilots feel about this? Simply not true. There are a few that have surpassed the 5-yr point that probably should go...but they're still here.

3: Why does Jet Blue need an employment contract? If you work for a carrier that doesn't have a collective bargaining agent (union) and they don't have a collective bargaining agreement (contract) isn't it hire and fire at will except for discrimination of some kind? There are surely others more familiar w/contract than me but it does protect the individual as well. Hourly rates, min gar., vacation, etc. are all spelled out as well as a 'no furlough' clause, disability ins. etc. It also spells out specific reasons why an individual can be terminated. Pretty common-sensical stuff...willful damage to co. property, flying sans pants, etc.

4: Does having an employment contract make it harder to organize and get a union on the property? As far as I know, there's nothing preventing us from organizing at the moment. There is a blurb in the 'contract' that states that union employees are not eligible for profit sharing. To me, that seems to be the only documented discouragement to organizing. There will be no P.S. this year so we'll see how much of an influence that is in the near future.

5: Is it true Jet Blue doesn't provide a system seniority list with DOB to the pilot group? True. One of the line dudes put out a homemade Access file a while back and took some major heat for it. It had a block for DOB but it wasn't filled in. While it'd be nice to have, we have a pretty young pilot group, so there's no real need to see what # you'll retire at. Also, with only the 'Bus, and I guess the E-190 now, there's no dreams of 'when can I hold the 777 Capt or 747 Capt seats. At least for now.

6: Is there any talk of union at Jet Blue? I guess there's always talk. Personally, I'd be more open to a SWAPA type arrangement. With over 1200 pilots at the moment, IMHO I think it's inevitable.

7: Lastly is EWR a co domicile with JFK and LGA or is it flown as part of a pairing from other domicles? Flown as parts of JFK pairings. However, all JFK pairings start/stop at JFK. The FLL-based folks do the LGA stuff. There might be a couple of exceptions month to month but if a trip starts/stops at EWR or LGA I think the company provides limo service back to JFK.

Thank you in advance for you responses. Please no condescending or arrogant replies just looking for some factual information. I think there is a lot of misinformation out there.

 

[CAL EWR B737]

My questions are pretty straight forward. Yes, I guess I have 80 posts but I pretty much only read CAL related stuff. Is there one particular thread that addresses most of my questions?

If my questions piss off some people then all can say life is too short, chill out! Last time I checked this is a forum for pilots to communicate. I do my best to answer questions others have about CAL even though they may have been posted several times in the past. This is a large forum sometimes the same questions get asked repeatedly.

 

[CAL EWR B737]

Maj

Thank you for your informative response.

 

[BigMotorToter]

Just to clarify, there is a system senority list. Just like any other airline I have worked at. It just doesn't have DOB next to the names, but when one guy retires, you move up a number. You can access it every day if you want to see if you have moved up or not. I had heard about the same pilot who put together a senority list but it had all kinds of info like address's and phone numbers etc... thats why it got canned. I think if someone wanted to put the time into it and write a program that predicted what number you would be in 10-20 years etc... without personal data, it could be done no problem.

 

[Maj]

Good correction. I have the Access list and I think the problem stemmed from the fact that he included who bypassed upgade and who had a seat lock for busting upgrade. It was supposed to be used as a tool to predict upgrade timing. There's also a previous company block. It only goes to 480-ish.

On a related note, I'd rather have a company pilot website (and not airlinepilotcentral.com) forum instead of a seniority list w/DOB. I'm not a computer genius (and I don't volunteer/work for free), but I find it hard to believe we can't make that happen.


Two posts for me in one day is more than all of 2005 I think. Better get back to lurking.

 

[AKAAB]

He wasn't the first to try to put together a seniority list. One of the guys in the first couple of classes took heat for trying to start one. All attempts to create a single seniority list have been quashed by management for "privacy" reasons. The Access list was going to be voluntary, by the way.

I hope Bushy will convince them that a seniority list is not an evil thing, and in fact, is mandatory if you are going to use a seniority-based system.

 

[sandman2122]

Any talk of Jetblue in SAT?

 

[scarlet]

why do jetblue care about privacy they did not a year or so ago when they gave people private information out? REMEMBER--why does the company care?