D'Angelo,
While I agree with you that no one, union or management should have the right to impose on you, or try to force you to do their will...I think many individuals are looking at it from a different perspective. No one will ever be mad at, hold a grudge against, or feel any ill will towards any employee providing for his/her family. That should be evryones number one priority in life. I think what people are trying to say is that if you can, try to pick up others drop requests first. We have 20 guys now out on the street, and whether they are pawns or not, I really don't know. What I do know is this...it takes at least $10,000 to train a brand new first officer. Let's just say our newbies bring in $1,500 per month their first year. This means that the company is saving $30,000 per month. Now, these pilots were made to complete IOE first...why...most likely so that they can be called back within 3 months without have to do ANY retraining. Let's just say they are gone for 3 months...thats $90,000 dollars that the company saves. However, that means that if 9 don't show back up for class, than this entire furlough was a wash. I will assume that many of them will go and get other jobs..ie CHQ, Horizon, Skywest, etc. It seems to me that it may even cost more in the long run to furlough...but that is my opinion. It is one thing to furlough because you are losing money...or furlough in mass quantities because you lost a lot of flying...but 20 people...thats only about 3% of our pilot group.
