AS Furlough Mitigation

[Wally]

The CO ... want to divide us further.

I'd say it's working as this is your very next sentence:

This is the worse pilot group I have worked with in 20+ years in the biz! Baja.

I'm not the only one seeing the irony here, am I?

 

[Mamma]

I try not to post on these websites very often but this is just driving me nuts. This company is unbelievable. It basically falls on the company to stop these furloughs and they look at the mighty dollar and thats it. I went to the LAX base meeting and asked Gary Beck straight up what this furlough would save the company. 12 million was his answer. I said OK and then I told him that you will have 8 or 9 percent of your pilot group on furlough and are totally pissed off. I mean I will never be the same after this. I told him that I will never do anything for this place again when and if I return and probably the 8 percent won't either. And we are the guys that are going to be here for the next 30 years. I told him to put a price tag on that. No answer. It's clear this management group doesn't understand what an asset happy employees are. So then it falls on the Union to save our jobs. Unfortunately, it sounds like the company wasn't really negotiating this MOU, but when the union comes out and doesn't tell this pilot group to vote YES for this thing? And the SEA union reps vote no for it? Really? Thanks guys. So now it falls to the my peers and the pilot group to save our jobs. And all I hear is a bunch of people that haven't really read this thing and are uneducated about it. Very frustrating. Atleast the Union has tried to help a little bit this week about educating everybody and I hope everyone does the right thing. It sucks the company has done this to us, but I hope you can look beyond that and think about all the families out on the street with no hopes of finding a job. It would be a different story if the economy was in a different place right now. But I find it a little hard to feel bad for senior people crying about second step, VSA and having to wait a week longer to get their schedule when you have families falling apart over this. I guess the first question I'll be asking the next time I fly with someone is how they voted for the MOU.

Does anyone really think the company is going to ignore $12 million for the hope of employee goodwill in the future? No. If you want to obtain something from management then you have to save them money or make life hard for them. If we as a pilot group would have tailored our schedules to 75 hours (min guarantee) right after they furloughed the first batch then they would have had to hire more pilots instead of being where we are now. Our union is weak and never even asked the pilots to make a "personal" decision and wheel back their hours a little each month. If a thousand pilots dropped 5 hours per month then the company would not be able to fly the schedule and thus we would not have guys on the street. This is all our fault.

 

[Wally]

I'm in the bottom 10%. I voted NO.

My reasons:
1-Eliminating 2nd step for no apparent reason other than to exert their will on us.
2-While guaranteeing the mitigation of current forecast furloughs, there is no guarantee of future furloughs (say the one they'd announce for Nov. 1.)
3-If my #2 concern comes true, ALPA will be put in a corner. ALPA can choose to exit the program (feeling we've been duped) which management will use to say ALPA is exacerbating the problem and thus creating the need for more furloughs (and more vitrol from junior members.)
4-It still allows pilots to fly to FAR limits through VSA and premium trips (at straight pay). If this MOU passes, the company could conceivably mark every trip a premium trip, thereby allowing anyone to fly over the monthly max.

I'd prefer we actually negotiate a program mutually. If that isn't an option, we need to enforce ourselves as has been suggested by others.

Fire away,
Wally

 

[msmb]

Well, according to many pilots senior to me, being furloughed is a normal part of being an airline pilot. I and my family should sacrifice one for the team. Why should feeding my family get in the way of a senior pilot doing VSA for premium time. Us bottom dwellers should suck it up.

Really?? How many of these greedy, senior pilots have actually been furloughed? I'm willing to bet that MOST of them that have this attitude haven't ever been on the street. It's all about themselves and how much they can make. Screw the guys with the young families that need to be able to put food on the table. How many are over age 60 and shouldn't still be here anyway?

 

[turbodriver]

3 words.

Told ya so......

 

[QCappy]

How many are over age 60 and shouldn't still be here anyway?

Year guys turned 60:

2007: 1
2008: 18
2009: 31

That equals 50! Furlough over.

 

[Old School 737]

Year guys turned 60:

2007: 1
2008: 18
2009: 31

That equals 50! Furlough over.

I second that!!!!!

 

[Going2Baja]

How many are in ANC? This should make a great scenario: Capt Over 60, flying a VSA premium trip and I get called on reserve......I can promise by the end of the day he'll wish he had stay home. But he will make $1300 for the day when I lose the cost of gas it took me to drive to work. Nice eh?

Oh yeah...For the record - I have done over 8 years of furlough from 4 airlines not counting AK, including over 5 from a major so I know how it feels to go from $80k to ZERO. I'm fighting this hard for the guys that are on the street and headed that way. Doing a furlough when your young and single is doable - but add kids in the mix and it gets WAY personal to me! So keep your lame PM's to yourself......I may have missed it this time, but I'll be in the next batch if there is one. The CO started this fight with Kasher and they still haven't let up....Rally the troops!

Baja.

 

[Old School 737]

I like how the company is lining up all the labor groups and singing them up for contract ext. The Aircraft technicians just ratify two-year contract extension. Man is the Co. playing this smart!! Get us all signed up now when the economy is slow and next year when it takes off we are all locked in and we miss the next upswing because then they will stretch out contract talks until the next down turn and then lock us in again. These guys are good. I wish we had voted ours down!!

 

[Old School 737]

So we should know anytime now if the MOU passed? Also later today we should have the results from the latest bid?