Dude,
I never said anything about a "small" difference in pay. Don't twist my words....not cool. What I did say is that everyone looks at the BIG pay difference with the NJ 18 day schedule compared to ours. Is there a difference in the 7n7...of course, but I never said it was little. Depending on how much OT you work will move the bottom line. Everyones is different. Holiday pay...yeah we don't have it, but we rotate schedules so if you work it one year, you have it off the next. I like that better. I would rather be home on the holidays instead of at work. Different strokes for different folks.
As far as holding the 7n7, that was the last 5 years as you have said. I had a buddy just interview at NJ last week and he was told that nobody knows how this new scheduling bid/policy is going to shake out. He is thinking about not going because of getting stuck on the 18 day, or delay to see what happens.
Vacation....yeah we need more and I believe that we will get it. We only have less than a handfull of people that have been here 10 years. Not much of an argument there. Sick time...what happens if you miss more than 12 days. Not flaming....just curious. I know a pilot here that has missed 18 days so far in 2007. Not one day of pay missed or one day asked to make up. If you're sick they don't want you to come to work.
Bottom line....if I were at year 10 right now, I would be pulling in around $123,373 with out even trying. That is just 2 OT days/month. If I did 3 OT days/month $133,560 at year 10. If I worked 4 OT days/month (which would be your 18 day) that is $143,747 at 10 years.
I'm going to give your friend the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn't understand what was presented. But, who knows what the Company tells new hires these days, I'm sure it wasn't the Union briefing that passed that bad info.
FACT
7/7 is the default schedule, he will get it as soon as he gets out of training.
The 18 day is a bid only schedule, not assignable. The only wild card is the 15 day reserve. It needs to be staffed at 10% per fleet and due to the premium pay people are betting it will go senior and not have to be junior assigned.