Massive furloughs at Polar

[Tomct]

Sorry to the Polar Folks. I hope that this is just a Wicked rumor, but if it is not, God Bless. Hopefully both pilot groups can come together and put a stop to this kind of treatment. Merge the lists and make the voice of the pilots Much Stronger!! Good Luck!

 

[heilhaavir]

Cato's moves are so predictable and yet many chose to keep their head in the sand.... I feel for you guys! Some of us might be able to help. Good luck to you all!!!

 

[cfire]

No, they can't furlough out of seniority, and the most senior person on our list is an F/E.

They will put out a new system bid, and all the classic pilots will be allowed to bid the -400. The cost of retraining all of these pilots in this massive shuffle will be millions.

Smart move Cato.

You may want to be careful here. He may try a -200 only furlough. Mr. Cato developed a -200 and -400 sub base system within the confines of the Atlas contract. Tossed a large wrench into our seniority system as a regular line guy like me would understand it. Not saying this is the case at Polar, but I imagine he may try it there to under his interpretation. What's to stop him anyhow. An MEC grievance? He may be willing to press the test switch and see if he can save on training costs.

Of course, why listen to me. I gave a warning about a week ago on the dusting off your resumes and most Polar guys told me I was full of it. While it is no secret that I and most Atlas crews view the Polar group as only self serving (Go to this Web Site and Slide Show To See Why) it does not mean we don't feel your pain. We have been there a few times as noted in the slide show.

The Atlas side has a Jobs Committee that was formed due to the regular Atlas furloughs to the benefit of our sister airline and AACS. That committee may be willing to help in placement of Polar crews. Since Polar put out an unsactioned Scab list, I do not know if those on that committee will be willing to help. May be worth a try requesting your MEC to contact them.

 

[Classicdriver]

cfire, that's a good point. I know when Atlas's first furloughs came along, the committee was set up. They did an outstanding job with many contacts established. They even had a website with updates and contact info. We were getting regular email updates as well.

It might be worth the Polar MEC's time to contact some of these folks or the chairman (unless he was on the Polar SBC list) and enlist some help. Might save them a bunch of labor, using info already collected and get some of their guys working again.

I just spoke to a guy in the upper levels at Focus, and he says "at this time" their not interested in any Polaroids as a result of the activites during the strike. I'm sure that would change if an airplane showed up on their doorstep all of a sudden (ie, a parked Atlas -200 became available).

 

[heilhaavir]

Not exactly true Classicdriver, 1 Polaroid went there in Feb and 2 in March... Good timing I might add

 

[weasel_lips]

Deleted!

 

[Whale Rider]

Flight schedule is still showing the entire Polar Classic Fleet flying well into September. Hmmm....

 

[Classicdriver]

Not exactly true Classicdriver, 1 Polaroid went there in Feb and 2 in March... Good timing I might add

I stand corrected. He must have spoken with forked tongue. This was an FE kind of Focus guy? He spoke in general terms. Could the three whose timing is awesome be pilots?

 

[heilhaavir]

Not a problem at all Classicdriver and yes all pilots.

 

[Serrano]

April 18, 2006

Unfortunately, given the Crew inefficiencies, it is just not economically viable to operate a Classic fleet of this size. Faced with this reality, we are left with no choice but to park the Polar Classic fleet effective July 1.


I know this raises the question of why Polar can efficiently operate a –400 fleet of only five aircraft, yet we can’t be as Crew efficient with the Classics. The answer lies in the fact that the -400s are used exclusively for scheduled service, where we can control the use of the aircraft and we can do so in a manner that ensures efficient Crew utilization. This is not the case with the Classic, however, where the ad hoc nature of the flying in which we place these aircraft makes them very Crew inefficient.


We have a successful airline and we are going to continue to have a successful airline going forward…. but only if we face up to the realities of our business and deal with the hard challenges as they occur, not ignore them and find ourselves in the position where any action we might take is too late to make a difference.

.

I get it!!! It's the fault of the crews that they have a successful airline and have to get furloughed!!!

Perfectly clear to me...going backward to go forward...

I wish you guys the best of luck-

 

[bman]

Serrano,

I think what the MAN was refering to was the fact that they cannot ddeal with the fact that Polar actually has a contract that means something and doesn't allow them to compete effectively in the Ad Hoc side of the Biz. He's probably correct since all the new start ups basically have no work rules besides those that the FAA mandates! Which is probably only one step below how they view the Atlas contract.

Someone once said that no matter how you feel about unions the companies that have them deserve them!

All of the startups will have them if they survive that long.

MY.02 your milage may vary.
Bman

 

[cfire]

Yep,

Atlas/Polar scheduling can't come to grips with the Polar CBA to schedule efficiently according to contract and cargo demand. Company has to pay for changes at Polar versus Atlas contract scheduling works. AAWW loves the Atlas contract. Plenty of wholes in it. We had the great support of Polar and the replacement crew leasing company AACS in Stansted U.K. to thank for a lot of what we all (Polar and Atlas) now have to live with.

Take a look at the flashplayer slide show AT THIS WEB SITE that was shown to the ALPA Executive Board a couple of months back. Give's you kind of a run down on the true relationship/events between Polar and Atlas.

So while Polar was taking a dump on Atlas crews in a number of ways, they were also taking a dump on themselves in the end. You'll never get them to admit that though.

Judging from reports in the field, a number of Polar guys have been taking it very personal on their furlough notice and have been getting a verbally abusive to the Atlas guys. Vibes from the company have been indicating that they may turn a number of those furloughs into terminations for harassment. That looks great on a resume. It's not rocket science to figure out who was where on a certain date. With crew pictures in digital format, it doesn't take long finding the offenders.

I'm certain someone will have too many bottles of liquid courage at a joint Polar/Atlas hotel bar and end up getting their teeth pulled out of someone elses knuckles.

My real reason for posting:

Talked to the Atlas guy that was running the jobs committee at Council 072. He said he would probably help if required to by his MEC, but he said he would be pulling his personal public jobs page down because of Polars behaviour pre and post Polar strike to Atlas crews. Said he would be advising the current employment recruiters he communicates with of the situation also. I'm guessing from his tone that he won't be recommending Polar crewmembers to them. I don't think that will prevent Polar guys from being hired, but that may make them the last ones to get interviewed.

Kind of a shame. Not only do the Polar guys loose out on a resource, but also the general pilot population that used his site. Site was up to over 65000 hits from when it started back in 2001 he said.

 

[B747FR8DAWG]

Can't We All Get Along?

I really don't get where all the hostilities towards the Atlas crewmembers come from? Everytime something doesn't go well for the Polaroids, they attack the Atlas crews, look at that mess of a strike they had, it was a Polar strike, not Atlas, but they harrassed only the Atlas pilots, none of the other ALPA carriers (NWA, UAL, FedEx, or UPS) were harrassed going into hotels or for flying THEIR own freight. Whenever I come across a Polar crew somewhere in the world, I always try to be professional and say hello, but most of the time the response I get from them are usually a scowl or dirty looks, so now my attitude is F*** You too! If they really want to teach management a lesson , why don't they do us all a favour and go on strike again, over the announced fleet reduction and furlough!

I really feel bad for the couple of friends of mine that fly for Polar, and will support those individuals in their endeavours after Polar. I don't want this to be a Polar bashing thread, but I just get fed up with the anger towards us Atlas Pilots, they make it look like we're the bad guys, but it's management that makes the big decisions, not us!

 

[mar]

The old saw

I really don't get where all the hostilities towards the Atlas crewmembers come from? Everytime something doesn't go well for the Polaroids, they attack the Atlas crews, ...

Misery loves company.

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

My real reason for posting:

Talked to the Atlas guy that was running the jobs committee at Council 072. He said he would probably help if required to by his MEC, but he said he would be pulling his public jobs page down because of Polars behaviour pre and post Polar strike to Atlas crews. Said he would be advising the current employment recruiters of the situation also. I'm guessing from his tone that he won't be reccommending Polar crewmembers to them.

Kind of a shame. Not only the Polar guys loose out on a resource, but also the general pilot population that used his site. Site was up to over 65000 hits from when it started back in 2001 he said.

Some info for your High Horseness:

Other than the engineers, most of the Polar guys furloughed will be the ones hired by Atlas and trained in joint classes with Atlas crew members. Polar and Atlas crews trained together for the first two weeks until they were split off.

Additionally nobody knew where they were going (Polar/Atlas) until called for class dates. For the past couple of years the interview was for BOTH airlines conducted by BOTH CP's.

Also I would estimate that around 60 to 70% are furloughees from major carriers. (My class represented AA,UAL,DAL,USAir, alone) Your genorosity torward pilots that were not even on the property during your beef with Polar at your last contract is greatly appreciated. Maybe we can return the favor once we are recalled to our respective majors.