ASA TA Reserve System

[DX Rick]

Well, its called a negotiation. The ready reserve was given to get the overall improvements in our reserve system, as well as the long call reserve, which I believe is a 9 hour call out. Not a bad trade off, if you ask me. You always give a little to get a little.

We have both 9 and 12 hour call out. It's very nice if you live in base as well.
The only downside on the 12 hour call out (LC2) is that on your day off, you have to call between a certain time frame to see if they have any trips for you the next day. In my case, I have LC2 with 6 days on, one day off. On my "day off" I still have to call scheduling to see if I have a trip the next day.

Then we have two windows of contact during the day on LC2. They can call between 7am-9am and then not until the hours of 5pm-7pm.

9 hour call, they can call you between 7am-3pm.

 

[SSDD]

Beware of the bucket system!!!!!!!!!!!!

That will become the primary means of assigning reserves. It won't be first call/last call in the normal sense. It will be first call/last call WITHIN A GIVEN BUCKET.

I hate to go all negative on you guys, but a lot of these things you're all excited about are part of the Skywest agreement. Our management has had a lot of experience with the wording and interpretation. You may have a contract, and it sounds great, but a comma here, and a period there will till it in the company's favor.

Don't get so eager to sign that you overlook the fine print.

 

[wmuflyguy]

The bucket system sucks.

If you are senior, they will bypass a junior reserve and assign it to you, if you have the right amount of days available. (a 2 day trip comes up and you have 2 days of reserve left, even if the junior guys has 4 days of availability and is perfectly legal to do it)

 

[John Pennekamp]

You guys may be right, but compare it to what we had... no reserve rules.

Previously, you were the bitch on reserve and virtually none of the contract applied to you. It was common to get called for a 4 day trip on your last day of reserve and be told, oh well, we'll make it up to you at the end of the month. We also had straight 2 hour call out.

While Skywest may be good at finding loopholes, our grievance committee is good at plugging them. And with a union, you need not fear retaliation for filing a grievance.

We've played the interpretation game with them before and won. If they try to violate the INTENT of the agreement, we'll win again, because all of the CNC members will testify what the intent was.

That's one more value of having a union and a contract that can't be changed with the stroke of a pen.

 

[OCP]

The bucket system sucks.

If you are senior, they will bypass a junior reserve and assign it to you, if you have the right amount of days available. (a 2 day trip comes up and you have 2 days of reserve left, even if the junior guys has 4 days of availability and is perfectly legal to do it)

Granted I haven't seen the actual language, but from what I was told the senior guy can refuse the trip as long as there is a junior guy who has the time to do the trip.

 

[120% Torque]

Granted I haven't seen the actual language, but from what I was told the senior guy can refuse the trip as long as there is a junior guy who has the time to do the trip.

I saw this mentioned ealier. That would be huge if in fact you had a "bypass" function that actually worked and wasn't overturned by some other little stipulation in the policy. Can you get more info on this?

 

[SSDD]

Granted I haven't seen the actual language, but from what I was told the senior guy can refuse the trip as long as there is a junior guy who has the time to do the trip.

Then what's the purpose of the bucket system? Again, make sure you understand what the bucket system is, and does, before you sign on the dotted line.

 

[John Pennekamp]

Then what's the purpose of the bucket system? Again, make sure you understand what the bucket system is, and does, before you sign on the dotted line.

The way it works, is that if you have 4 days of reserve, you go in the 4 bucket. You can be assigned a trip of 4 days or less. Every day, you move down one bucket. On the last day, you can only be given a day trip.

The purpose of the bucket is to prevent the company from assigning you a 3 day trip on the last day of your 3 day reserve stand when you were supposed to be commuting home for your kid's birthday. Which happens all the time right now.

 

[Palerider957]

The way it works, is that if you have 4 days of reserve, you go in the 4 bucket. You can be assigned a trip of 4 days or less. Every day, you move down one bucket. On the last day, you can only be given a day trip.

The purpose of the bucket is to prevent the company from assigning you a 3 day trip on the last day of your 3 day reserve stand when you were supposed to be commuting home for your kid's birthday. Which happens all the time right now.

.......unless they feel like assigning you that three day trip on your last day.

Remember, you will still be dealing with the same Crew Schedulers and Management. They didn't follow the old contract, don't think they will follow this one.

ASA is has always run understaffed, and probably always will. This is incentive for managment to get the contract signed....but not to follow it.

 

[OCP]

I saw this mentioned ealier. That would be huge if in fact you had a "bypass" function that actually worked and wasn't overturned by some other little stipulation in the policy. Can you get more info on this?

I'll be happy to get more info on it, but the TA hasn't been published yet, so all I really know is what I've been told, and that was a few years ago now, which is how long we've had that section TAd.

 

[atlcrjdriver]

The way it works, is that if you have 4 days of reserve, you go in the 4 bucket. You can be assigned a trip of 4 days or less. Every day, you move down one bucket. On the last day, you can only be given a day trip.

The purpose of the bucket is to prevent the company from assigning you a 3 day trip on the last day of your 3 day reserve stand when you were supposed to be commuting home for your kid's birthday. Which happens all the time right now.

By the the bucket system, under the new TA is the GDO system still in effect or are all your days off firm days off?

 

[SSDD]

John,

I'm pretty familiar with the bucket system and Skywest's management's interpretation of it. I was responding to OCP's comment. That ain't necessarily the way it works.

It will only work the way you describe it if you dot all the i's and cross all the t's. That's all I'm saying.

 

[OCP]

John,

I'm pretty familiar with the bucket system and Skywest's management's interpretation of it. I was responding to OCP's comment. That ain't necessarily the way it works.

It will only work the way you describe it if you dot all the i's and cross all the t's. That's all I'm saying.

Which is what I really hope our MEC did. We had so many ambiguous phrases in our last scheduling section section, and it pretty much doubled in the amount of pages from the old one to the new one. From what I was told, a lot of it was based on what ExpressJet has. We'll see.... Either way there is a process to fight it if the company decides to interpret the section in it's own way.

 

[John Pennekamp]

.......unless they feel like assigning you that three day trip on your last day.

Remember, you will still be dealing with the same Crew Schedulers and Management. They didn't follow the old contract, don't think they will follow this one.

ASA is has always run understaffed, and probably always will. This is incentive for managment to get the contract signed....but not to follow it.

As I said, that's what the grievance committee is for. Don't fear it and don't bitch about it. Just grieve it IF it happens. One thing our MEC has an excellent record on is contract defense.

 

[John Pennekamp]

By the the bucket system, under the new TA is the GDO system still in effect or are all your days off firm days off?

My understanding it that there will still be GDOs. I can't remember how many.

 

[FmrFreightDog]

My understanding it that there will still be GDOs. I can't remember how many.

6, and I believe if they move one of your other days off it becomes a GDO as well.

 

[John Pennekamp]

6, and I believe if they move one of your other days off it becomes a GDO as well.

There you go.