Flex bid Gone

[Imissmypilot]

Er, no. We always had 7 and 8 day lines. But they were made green lines in the new bases after the buy out. Still yellow in DFW and a few others.

No you are discussing special circumstances as if they are the general rule. In doing so, you are just helping the narrative the these changes (that do not honor the original choices of the pilot group and are occurring outside of negotiation) are acceptable.

What I am talking about is the basic operation of Flexbid as designed and the pilot group it was designed for. Not the crazy bull**** added in after the acquisition or bull**** that is precipitated by unnegotiated changes in work rules.

You are both smarter than allowing that crap. I could be wrong on the 8 days occurring pre-accquisition (it's been a while now) but my statement stands without out.

As designed, with overwhelming pilot preference in mind, green lines have been 14-16 day lines limited to max 6 day rotations with the standard rules of min 4 off before/after 6, min 3 off before/after 5's and 4's. Additionally green lines protected the rules on lead ins and vacation blocks.

Yellow lines allowed for 7 days prior to the buyout (maybe 8 but not my recollection.) Yellow lines expand the choices to 12-18 days on, eschew the "rules" and allow for 2 day off mins.

Do you even remember why green lines were green lines? Kinda funny in just 3 years most do not. It's because with duty days of 8-9 hours, time home on 5/3 or 4/3 was a highly valued and doable choice. With 12 plus and killer first/lasts we now need larger chunks of off time just to recover.

In the early days of Flexbid, pilots viewed a yellow line bid as a last resort to get off specific days. Now yellow is probably the preference since getting worked to the bone requires a rethinking of strategy. SD put out stats at one point that back this up about the early days but I've since purged them.

Unlike you, I am no fan of Flexbid. That's not a knock on you, I'm just saying that to give context to my statements. I would take a fixed 7&7 in a heartbeat and have tried to fashion my bid for years with that attempt (with little luck since 16 appears to be the demand.)

However there are two principles I stand on:

1.) I will not lose money to help Kenn Ricci save it.

2.) I will not endorse unnegotiated changes to our work rules or adherence to the MCBA in a fashion attempting to discredit the value of the union to the pilot group.

 

[justmeinmsp]

That is correct 8 days were in secondary bases. I’d be interested in knowing the percentage of pilots that still live in one of those 5 bases vs how many live in the secondary. If you don’t think making 8 days green for all to bring in equality to the group as a hole, you’re dreaming. What prevents them from defining CLE as THE primary base and all others secondary? They also changed the min days off at the same time. Funny how things are forgotten. That’s his best technique. Distract you with his right hand, while his left is picking your pocket. Other things lost during that time. 3 sick days per year. But hey, now it’s PTO and that’s better. Right? 3% 401k match. That horse crap of it was temporary and never meant as a long term option is bull. That was never mentioned until KR showed up. Par for the course considering the bonus fiasco. Out of seniority upgrades via International Large Cabin. Another stinky pile of crap. Funny how you all of a sudden have made up reasons to selectively move people around and then there’s the pay disparity for RL. Those joe cool, awesome uniforms. Short term disability was shortened, long term is hard to get. Several have been denied it. But you got loss of license, right. Good luck with that one. Who’s the underwriter for that policy? KR. A bunch of new airplanes means growth, right. What’s the total fleet count in 2013 for FO and FJ combined vs now? Good luck getting those numbers, but I’d estimate flat, at best. Drink up boys, that’s some good cool aid right there

 

[Imissmypilot]

PTO? What bull****. I heard they are selectively requiring in-network visits for sick calls. What happened to "it's PTO so you can use it however you want?"

Not only that but I heard they're requiring an in network visit cuz then they have access to the diagnoses codes. Talk about major issues.

Heard of a pilot who got a CGF for making a sick call but the company phone showed him out of domicile. When he arrived for his CGF he asked if they thought it was impossible to get sick while away from home?

2 lessons learned: the company can track your phone and never ever ever be specific with your pto reasoning.

 

[doh]

IMMP and JMiMSP, I’m glad you two are paying attention. SPT, Phildo and wookieboy are asking what the union has done. Turnabout is fair play, so what has management done for us. Loss of 3% 401k, loss of sick time, short term disability, etc. AND 8 day green lines with 4 days off. And never forget, less than one quarter of us are able to take advantage of red label. The rest of us are stuck subsidizing this BS!

 

[shanes123]

I don't have the airplane numbers.. But my guess is we are well into the negatives. Whole beechnut/nextjunk fleet gone that was a SHT load of planes and all the Xs gone Legacy 600 heading out the door .. My best guess is we are shrinking rapidly..and the pilot count on the last SLI I saw was 574..Someone correct me but I thought we were over 650 pilots at time of merger.. Thats almost 100 pilots down if my guesstimate is correct

 

[doh]

The original ISL had 670 pilots. I believe 137 of those pilots have left. We have hired a few again, but yes, we have shrunk.

 

[Club ORD FO]

The original ISL had 670 pilots. I believe 137 of those pilots have left. We have hired a few again, but yes, we have shrunk.

Thats makes our attrition rate just over 10% per year. 1 or 2 pilots per week.

Fun with calculators.

 

[V1 Rotate]

The original SLI had 673 pilots. The latest list has 574, 534 of which were here at MCD (Merger Closing Date). So, they’ve hired 40 pilots. 673 - 534 = 139. 139 of the original 673 have left since Febuary 2016, representing 21% of the pre-merger pilot group. Club’s math is correct.

 

[shanes123]

Bottom line is all they talk about is growth, new planes , getting bigger then NJ. But in reality they can’t even sustain what they have. This is a ship taking on water in a Booming economy. WTF. !!!!! KR ran this place into bankruptcy once and don’t think he’s not capable of doing it again.

 

[GlorifiedCabbie]

From BJT:
[FONT=&quot]Jay Beever, Embraer’s vice president of interior design, led the team that developed the Legacy 500 interior. Beever started his career in the car business, and he has a deep understanding of industrial design. His mantra: “It’s ergonomics first, craftsmanship second, then design.” On the 500, he says, “We really tried to break all the rules, break all the paradigms of what the airplane should be at the price point. The idea is to give people value but offer more.”

We no longer focus on value. We focus on design(bespoke interiors), then craftmanship(but chipped cabinets take months to fix). Who has it backwards?[/FONT]