Polar Air Cargo close to an AGREEMENT

[furloughfodder]

The way I see it, Polar is getting a 17.5% wage increase. Much better than the original 10.5% Cato offered before the strike. (10.5% Pay + 3% 401K Increase + 4% 401K Lump Sum Payout). Of course the 401K contributions are BEFORE TAX, so that could really bring it up to close to a 20% raise.

Sorry you didn't get your wish -300. It must be strange for you to see a group of pilots with cojones that big, while you glance in the mirror at that empty sack of yours. Looks like Polar is here for the long run. I think they gained the respect of the entire industry over the last few weeks. While most airlines are taking huge pay cuts and losing their pensions , it is good to see a group stand up for what they believe in.

Now, when it comes time for your negotiations, you will see what it really means to 'stand united' when the Polar group comes to the plate for you!

BRAVO POLAR AIR PILOTS!!!! BRAVO!!!!!

PS - B747-300 please send you application for employment to Polar to D.C., I hear they will be hiring soon!

 

[mar]

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

So.

The merger is back on.

There's more animosity than EVER between Atlas and Polar. Management has won again.

It seems to me this was the wrong strike at the wrong time for the wrong reasons and now everyone is going to pay for it.

Absolutely frickin' brilliant.

Thanks Polar.

Thanks for putting my name on a list.
Thanks for asking my friends at Polar what I look like.
Thanks for the phone call from a FedEx pilot in my hotel room.
Thanks for keeping me from performing MY job.

Let me repeat the last one....

Thanks for keeping ME from performing *MY* job.

I never performed anyone else's job. The judge ordered the suspension of all struck work rules and your airplanes sat idle.

Thanks a million.
Brilliant.

 

[furloughfodder]

You're welcome?

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Jeez Mar, dunno what brought all that on, did you go around a line or something? (or appear to?)

Also part of the T/A includes that all Atlas pilots that were terminated or disiplined for honering the Polar lines be returned to work with no retributions against them.

They did get improvements from pre strike offer, just not in outright pay. Got all their fired people back and all the Atlas guys back.

Could it have used better planning? Yes
Did it garner a huge windfall? No.
Come on though, you gotta give the boys credit , in an age when every pilot group is bending over and taking it in the shorts they at least had the gonads to try to stop the landslide to the bottom.

Not one Polar guy crossed, full unity till the end, they refused to sell the junior guys out, they refused to leave the fired Atlas guys behind, they got some gains (even if it was small).

Considering that every airline out there lays down and wimpers like a puppy when mgmt. comes to the table nowadays, I think they did pretty good for a bunch of freight dogs working for an "Outfit"

Judging from what I have seen and read, I doubt that the Atlas group could maintain that level of Unity for 2 days, much less two weeks. Watching the Polar guys reminded me alot of the old days of ALPA.

Every revolution starts with one guy saying "No More" Maybe Polar was that one guy that sparks the rest to try to improve the crap situation in the industry. Lord knows it is not going to come from mgmt.

 

[HAL]

Any word on the contents of the TA? Airplanes returning? 'Fired' crew recalled?

HAL

 

[mar]

Where have you been?

Reply to Kerosense Snorter:

It's quite magnanimous of you to have such an understanding attitude.

But. Have you been working this last week? Are you even on-line yet?

Specifically, have you experienced the absurdity of being instructed to honor the picket line, on the one hand, and on the other, fly the schedule?

Have you done the little run around at JFK? At ANC?

Have you had picketers pound on the crew van?
Video tape you going to work?
Been added to a "List"?
Been "counseled" by another airline's ALPA rep in your hotel room?
Been escorted by security guards through the basement of your hotel?

Have you been made to feel like a scab when you were never given the privilege of taking a strike vote (and certainly performed no one else' job but your own) but instead had someone else's fight shoved down your throat on THEIR terms????

If you think I sound angry you should talk to some of our other pilots.

This strike accomplished nothing for the industry...so far, it's practically resulted in a status quo.

It's an embarrassment to the industry. If it had the media coverage of the Great American Airlines Sickout it would've been an even bigger fiasco.

Reply to HAL--All the fired pilots were offered their jobs back.

 

[heilhaavir]

Yes HAL, all newfires back and airplanes too. They haven't been able to contact 12 of the newfires, all others have said they coming back. If you can reach your friend HAL, tell her to call the strike center in DC if she wants to come back with all back pay.
Cheerios

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Mar,

Had a nice detailed reply typed up and got dumped by the system.

Anyhow, short form,

Yes I saw what you did

I guess I see it from a different light since we come from different backgrounds (per your profile) I came from one of the airlines that got the royal screwjob post 9/11. Mgmt. and the Union both sold our guys down the river to save their own skins. Massive outsourcing, retirement destroyed etc.

I followed the directive of DB and the Judge, difficult at times but could be done. No body is ending up on a list for following the union directives.

Some of the Polar picketeers went overboard, but then again so did some of the Atlas guys. Face it people like 300 were not instilling confidence in the Polar guys that Atlas was trying to comply with the union directives.

Atlas was placed by mgmt. in the position of being "legal" replacement workers and everybody did the best to comply as best as they could.

Did you bother to talk to the Polar guys during this?

Make no mistake, it could have easily been Atlas on the line and Polar forced to be still flying. It may still be next year.

No hard feelings, difficult, but I still think that it was something that needed to be done, and may again on the Atlas side. Or it might have mgmt. think twice about trying to put a screwjob on the Atlas side during negotiations.

Funny how two people from different backgrounds can see the same thing differently.

 

[PHXFLYR]

"Besides, we lost 2 weeks of pay."

You also lost the respect of everyone in the industry. Stupid reason to strike. Stupid time to strike. Poor planning. Poor execution. Extremely poor decision to target Atlas crews the way you did. This thing was a f**k up, start to finish. You need to shut up, crawl back into the cockpit and hope the world will forget someday.

Nice to see you have such fine control over your emotions


PHXFLYR

 

[B747-300]

".....so that could really bring it up to close to a 20% raise."

That's a good one. I laughed hard.

The union kept insisting there would be a huge profit at Polar, but they were quick to trade away profit sharing for improved 401(k) language. No gain here.

The 4% lump sum payment might make up for the 2-3 weeks with no pay during the strike. No gain here either.

The company only gave one small thing; an extra one month (retroactive) at the new pay rates. Just a small bone so your union leadership could try to claim victory.

YOUR STRIKE WAS A JOKE! YOU GAINED NOTHING! YOU ALIENATED EVERY ATLAS CREWMEMBER! THIS WILL FOREVER BE REMEMBERED AS THE BIGGEST "CAVE" IN ALPA HISTORY!

You should thank me. I was one of only a couple guys that spoke the truth. If you hadn't groveled back to "the table" and accepted the same old offer that was there all along, Polar would be gone forever along with your jobs.

 

[mar]

I don't respond well to intimidation

Did you bother to talk to the Polar guys during this?

I guess you missed the part where I said that Polar Picketers were calling up my friend (who's a Polar Pilot) and asking them what I look like so that they could identify me when I went to work.

Look. I'm no Neanderthal Man thumping his chest. And maybe you have a point that I'm not dragging around baggage from 20 years in the airlines. But I have been been busting my butt for 20 years and I don't appreciate getting pushed around, harrassed and intimidated.

Again, good for you for rising above the madness.

To hell with Polar for dragging me into it.

I was sympathetic (as earlier posts will prove) but their strategy of targeting Atlas pilots has been their biggest mistake. Of any pilot group we were the only one that could truly fortify their position....FedEx certainly couldn't do jack for them except make a few "encouraging" phone calls to Atlas pilots.

Not to repeat myself but the merger is back on and they are now more alienated then ever from the Atlas group. The situation couldn't be rosier for management.

I certainly never thought I'd be having this conversation with an Atlas pilot.

 

[furloughfodder]

Of any pilot group we were the only one that could truly fortify their position....

....and if you would have, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. The stike would have been over in a day.

Dude, how would you feel if you went on strike (impossible since you guys caved and signed a No STRIKE LOA) and they simply moved all of you struck freight to Polar? Wouldn't you feel sold down the river?

The ONLY way for this strike to have worked was to get the full support of the Atlas pilots, that HAD THE RIGHT to NOT CROSS any of the picket lines.

 

[furloughfodder]

The union kept insisting there would be a huge profit at Polar, but they were quick to trade away profit sharing for improved 401(k) language.

...and when was the last time you actually got to see any of your profit sharing ?

 

[B747-300]

No shortage of fiery rhetoric on the Polar MEC conference call!

It looks like the Polar crews are going to vote against ratification because the T/A doesn't allow them to refer to Atlas pilots as "scabs". In the unlikely event there are further negotiations after the T/A fails, protection of Atlas crews will be included in any language. Trying to delete the Atlas crewmember language is, as they say in negotiating terms, a "non-starter".

I always make it a point to buy beer when a crewmember retires. Since you Polar guys will be finished forever on Wednesday, I'll buy the beer at Humpy's or F Street that night. That's the least I can do for the twerps in ANC.

 

[Yank McCobb]

I'll buy the beer at Humpy's or F Street that night. That's the least I can do for the twerps in ANC.

Do you promise to be there, or will you turn out to be the chicken sh!t everyone knows you to be?