I'm not saying a contract or a union is necessarily a good or bad thing, I'm saying merging the pilots groups does little for flex. Their airplanes and play scales are not of interest to the average flex pilot. Flex pilots arguable have more to risk/lose. It means fewer upgrades into flex planes for flex first officers. correct?
Club,
It's so frustrating, after all this time, to continue to read this types of posts. Now that Flex/Options has been declared a single carrier the merger of the pilot groups is happening, like it or not. What's important to decide is how we're going to handle it. How we manage the situation.
Option one: Vote out the union and allow KR and company to decide for us how the integration will occur. In this scenario, I think we can count on more of the same, FOK's taking most of the seats in the large aircraft, without any regard for seniority. Terminations for minor infractions and perceived slights to fragile management egos. A seniority list integration that we the pilots have absolutely no control over. Life under the absolute and dictatorial control of a management team, that left unchallenged, has displayed
over and over their willingness to rule with an iron fist.
Option two: Vote in the union and take control of our collective futures through the collective bargaining process. A seniority list integration process determined by a committee made up of Flexjet and Flight Options pilots who will have to answer to
us not management. A CBA that
we negotiate for the combined pilot group that will continue to give the Flight Options pilots and will provide the Flexjet pilots with job protections, work rules, system board, arbitration and grievance procedures. A CBA that is enforceable, unlike that fake employment agreement the Flexjet pilots currently work under. Most of all, the dignity that comes from being able to say
NO when management crosses over the line while we are at work, without fear of retribution.
Look man, you keep talking about what you "have" to loose.
The fact is you currently "have" nothing. Nothing that management can't take away from you tomorrow with an email.
Did you "have" the stip? That
was covered in your employment agreement, wasn't it? What about the no-call list, did you "have" that? Now they gave you a rolling duty day. Wait till peak travel.
These things have all happened during a period of time when KR was constrained by his desire to get the FX pilot's vote against the union. Leading up to an election he's known was coming for two years now. Can you imagine what he will do to what you
think you "have" if that dynamic changes?