2015 Pilot Discussion.

[A320 Driver]

Just more drama from out west. Business as usual.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Thanks for publishing this key update Clax. John & Eric are doing a GREAT job. You may also have noticed that they were BOTH nominated for another term, and ran UNOPPOSED. Now that's SOLIDARITY.

For someone who claims to be unafraid of little old PHX, you sure post a great deal about us (including ancient past).

 
Yes.  John & Eric are indeed doing a great job.  I can sum it up in one word:   WWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

 

[EastUS1]

Not sure if the west understands how insignificant they are to the whole picture, ......

 
Not yet, it would seem, but from this latest "key update"; they may finally be catching on...at least a little bit.

 

[nycbusdriver]

USAirways CEO and President Bruce R. Lakefield threw AW and US a lifeline of his own design in 2005.  It was not Parker's plan, nor did Paker (at that time) have the credibility to raise that money.  Lakefield had, and probably still has, money connections that Parker can still only dream of; but Lakefield famously despised the job of running an airline, so Parker...likely salivating at the prospect...assumed the top management spot.  But Parker wisely knew that Lakefield's plan required both airlines to make it work.  US was in deeper doo-doo than AW at the time, but AW was not financially solvent (and it is downright, side-splitting hilarious that anyone would think AW had enough money to do anything along the lines of buying another carrier, bankrupt or not) and AW was already well on its own slide into Chapter 11 (per Parker himself.)   With the financially powerful Southwest Airlines hub at AW's only hub, the chances of AW's survival for the long term were speculative, at best.
 
PHX will always be, at best, a second-tier hub.  As far as population and geography, it is destined to be just that.  Southwest does well there because they have designed their entire airline's infrastructure to make that possible.  
 
Anyone with a map showing LAX and DFW and a functioning brain can look and see that PHX's days as anything more than a focus city at the New American Airlines are numbered.  Parker will time out the promises made to Phoenix and Arizona, and pull down the service.

 

[EastUS1]

Thanks for publishing this key update Clax. John & Eric are doing a GREAT job. You may also have noticed that they were BOTH nominated for another term, and ran UNOPPOSED. Now that's SOLIDARITY.

For someone who claims to be unafraid of little old PHX, you sure post a great deal about us (including ancient past).

 
"Since the beginning of this last merger, our PHX pilots were assured that this would not happen:..." 
 
What hopeless Suckers! Anyone living beyond the wistful realm of very young children could see most all of this coming from management, but at least you've got all that "SOLIDARITY" to comfort yourselves with.

 

[nycbusdriver]

 
 
 but at least you've got all that "SOLIDARITY" to comfort yourselves with.

 
....don't forget the $675 ties.  That is oh-so-important, too!

 

[EastUS1]

 
....don't forget the $675 ties.  That is oh-so-important, too!

 
Indeed. My bad for overlooking both the importance and true value of those, as well as the "Integrity Matters" T-shirts, "Cactus18" pins and "spartan bling" in general.

 

[end_of_alpa]

posted on July 28, 2015 23:11
"Dear Phoenix Pilots,
 
This Tuesday evening (July 28, 2015), the company published a memo stating that duty rigs will be aligned with the LAA pilots in accordance with the Green Book for all LUS pilots, commencing October 1, 2015. While this will result in improvements for LUS East pilots, it will amount to a significant loss for LUS West pilots and will likely result in at least two or three fewer days off per month for less pay. Make no mistake, it will be devastating to the junior half of our captains and first officers and their families. While the work rules will be aligned, the bidding calendar will NOT yet be aligned, so that our East counterparts will continue to have the advantage of having their trips built one month prior to ours so that we in PHX will get what's left over (but now, without the benefit of our superior work rules to help compensate for this). While the company claims it is leveling the playing field, indeed, it is not. Benefits are again afforded to the East, while the West is forced to help finance those benefits. It's a fact, but that's what you get when working for our humble airline, despite the fact that our PHX pilots were the only group not bankrupt during either of the last two mergers.
 
Since the beginning of this last merger, our PHX pilots were assured that this would not happen: we would keep our work rules and rigs until we were finally assimilated with the rest of the company, whenever that occurred, because the various agreements management struck all worked to keep PHX in its own and stagnant fishbowl, (subject to the whims, goals, and schedules of other parties). After all, this very management team has seen to it that ALL other pilots at “New American” have continue to have greater opportunities than our pilots, just as they oversaw the same situation at US Airways which nearly any objective outside observer would view as nothing short of malicious in nature. Management seems perfectly content to allow PHX to fight for years to enforce the very agreements they themselves signed and which they always had the power to uphold.
 
We first learned of this possible change on Tuesday of last week- the eve of our last domicile meeting, but had no confirmation at that time and didn't feel it was our job to be the bearers of this potentially bad news since we are not responsible, in any way, for these decisions. Nonetheless, we did have fairly high-level management guests at our last meeting and those of you in attendance might have noticed a curious line of comments and questions about implementation and the eventual loss of our precious rigs posed to those management guests. Make no mistake: Our prime directive has always been to knock down all barriers to implementation of the new integrated seniority list (ISL) so that, when it is published, it will be implemented almost immediately. We have always maintained that this is a trade worth taking and a sacrifice worth making, but not without an immediately pending benefit, as is the situation we now face. October 2015 is so far ahead of the ISL implementation that going to these inferior work rules at that time offers no benefits to our pilots, but only detriments. The line of questions mentioned above was an effort to elicit a response from management about these rumored and pending changes, but nobody took the bait so the discussion ended there (and we had no concrete proof that this was the plan as of last Wednesday anyway).
 
But as of Thursday and Friday of last week, we became aware that this was indeed the plan- to align all of the work-rules, (good and bad) beginning in October 2015, so we decided to take our concerns to the very top of American Airlines. This is something we do not do lightly, but determined that this situation required us to do so in effort to intervene on your behalf. We were hearing of such a dramatic and sudden reversal from what we had always been told to expect during this transition that we couldn't help but think something had been overlooked and might be reconsidered in the interest of equitable treatment for their airline's employees when brought to the attention of our former AWA CEO and his former AWA colleagues.. We sent the following correspondence around noon on Friday (giving our senior-most leadership the weekend to contemplate our plea), yet received no response or acknowledgment whatsoever until the company published the Read File entitled, “October 2015 JCBA Implementations – 28JUL2015” wherein you can read the company's response to our PHX concerns:
 
While no response was received from any of the addressees to the above letter, we did receive a response by way of the aforementioned Read File authored by First Office Jim Eaton “Senior Manager, Pilot Negotiations” which ignored all of our PHX concerns outright, while taking great pains to outline some of the benefits to the LUS East pilots (and ignoring the part about their continued advantage by way of bidding well in advance of ALL other pilots at “New American”).
 
The response from our former AWA management team to the concerns of their former AWA pilots is now crystal-clear: NOTHING. We look forward to the day when a management team that truly offers the “Cultural Change” which Parker and friends sold to the naive and desperate pilots of AA actually does take over at New American. That team will do more than simply apply the blanket and draconian policies of the former management and give more than mere lip-service to the concerns of its employees. Perhaps they will actually recognize the symbiotic necessity of mutually beneficial labor/management relations,  taking into account fairness and equity rather than simply ignoring the concerns of many of their most faithful employees. We eagerly await that day.
 
In the meantime, PHX is lost forever and we can't imagine how management will ever regain our trust. At least now we know where we stand. We hope the rest of the pilots of AA can learn from our experience today and not be strung along with hollow promises for years to come.
 
Sincerely,
 
John Scherff
Eric Ferguson"

Another "Day in the Life in the "Phish" bowl."
Can anyone see your tears while your underwater?
Misery loves company.
Nobody cares. Nobody!

 

[Freighterguynow]

Thanks for publishing this key update Clax. John & Eric are doing a GREAT job. You may also have noticed that they were BOTH nominated for another term, and ran UNOPPOSED. Now that's SOLIDARITY).

Well, it' somethin all right.

 

[luvthe9]

Did anyone feed the fish today?

 

[EastUS1]

Thanks for publishing this key update Clax. John & Eric are doing a GREAT job. .....

 
Per the "key update": "In the meantime, PHX is lost forever....."
 

Even a Google search produced the following:
 
33.4342° N, 112.0117° W
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Coordinates
 
Just tryin' ta' help "you'se" and your obviously unclear-on-the/ANY-concept-in-general "leadership" out a bit there.
 
Per: "Management seems perfectly content to allow PHX to fight for years to enforce the very agreements they themselves signed and which they always had the power to uphold." Shocking! Truly amazing in fact! Why; WHO could have EVER even possibly seen that coming? Hmm...although I do recall posting that your fine bunch were observably little more than management's little "useful idiots" long ago, come to think of it. Sigh...Well, maybe a few more proud declarations of your undying loyalty and mindless worship of them might do the trick. Heck; ya' could at least start by having your Johnny M. again directly ask of the CEO how and if he "should turn in" east pilots for the heinous crime of taxiing with both engines running, and then of course produce another rousing round of promises to cross any picket line as suits "you'se". This all should naturally be coupled with activiely assisting any/all company efforts at gaining some legal injunction against the pilot group as a whole, even including your brilliant selves. Hmm....of course "you'se" did all of that anyway, and tragically as it now seems, without even the slightest gains for your noble and ever-so-loyal-selves at all being realized. 
 
"Reality!...What a Concept!" Robin Williams
 
end_of_alpa put it all quite nicely:
 
"Another "Day in the Life in the "Phish" bowl."
Can anyone see your tears while your underwater?
Misery loves company.
Nobody cares. Nobody!"
 
P.S. If "you'se" have a desire to employ your skills at "hangman"; the following riddle's offered. Fill in the missing letter: "SUCK_ RS"
 
 
 
 

 

[EastUS1]

 
posted on July 28, 2015 23:11

"Dear Phoenix Pilots,

In the meantime, PHX is lost forever and we can't imagine how management will ever regain our trust. At least now we know where we stand. We hope the rest of the pilots of AA can learn from our experience today and not be strung along with hollow promises for years to come.
 
Sincerely,
 
John Scherff
Eric Ferguson"

 

 
The above "key update" must needs be the product of at most 13 year olds' "minds", as is the incredibly naive, and almost unimaginably both pretentious and utterly clueless: "We hope the rest of the pilots of AA can learn from our experience.." Seriously kids? 😉 Just be careful taking even those first little baby steps out into the real world. A possibly helpful hint here to start with is that nobody in higher management at all cares about your "trust" or your pwecious widdle feewings. Grow Up!

 

[Freighterguynow]

Fishbowel 2022 - isn't that the olympic mascot ?

 

[Claxon]

West noticeably absent. Dave- did you get some news from your golf instructor?

 

[luvthe9]

West noticeably absent. Dave- did you get some news from your golf instructor?

West in the sand trap?