I would not be surprised if they do hire, we are running short of captains, and they will need to upgrade.
Last week on a trip, aircraft mechanical, part was being flown in, the told me they might A section our next leg, but they were concerned because they did not have enought captains.
I highly doubt anyone hired would be furloughed after the merger. We are operating on separate certificate for a couple of years, due to training everyone to common procedures. In that time, people will still retire, upgrade, or leave for other reasons and consequently, they will have to hire. USAir has a fairly high retirement rate for a several years, and most of those spots will have to be filled.
iflyhigh: just so you know the fact that it'll take a couple of years to transfer us over to USA's ops cert won't protect anybody from furlough. AA furloughed so many TWA guys (the bottom of the list) that some AA pilots had to be trained and brought over to the TWA op cert for several months. I'm not predicting any furloughs but nothing would surprise me. I hope this pilot-hiring thing is true but I won't believe it till I see it.
I don't want to fuel the rumor wildfire any more than necessary, but I was told the same thing by the CP's office... 80+ new hires (presumably, most from the pool) by the end of the year.
I'll be first to admit this seems odd all considering...
Maybe the merger is not even going to happen now because of upcoming integration problems between all employee groups. But then there is always the next merger partner (hopefully an airline that has no pilots on furlough).
What is the word on the street regarding the USAir fulrloughees? I know this has been talked about here in great length, but what is the latest- any USAir people or former USAir people care to comment?
Forgive me if I jump in with well worn observations but....
I have no idea if the merger agreement will be consumated but if it is, we (AWA and U) are fortunate to have ALPA merger policy available. We should be pleased that a process is in place that has some hope of arriving at an equitable outcome. A process where equals argue their point. It is clear to me that defining equity is difficult. Any party to a merger will find an argumant which suits their own desires (usually short term). Merger policy, for all it's rumored content, directs the neutral to be fair. Couch it any way you want. When read without prejudice, it directs fairness of an arbitrator.
So if a negotiated agreeement is unattainable (a near certainty) we will get one via another process. Hopefully, it will not be look like the AA/TWA agreement which spread pain (created by neither party) so unfairly. The role of the rank and file is largely to fly the planes. Hopefully, leadership will identify that a seniority list will be produced with or without emotional rhetoric and devisive words between pilots who on some date certain will share employer. Maybe cool heads will prevail. Maybe a viable competitor will emerge. Maybe the whole process will be the lesser of other evils and maybe we pilots will identify it.
I'm a glass half-full guy ........ and maybe I'm nuts
Doesn't make sense to hire/recall any more pilots at either airline with a merger in the works and with MESA available flying replacement jets the size of DC9s for crap wages.
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