Arbitrator to rule on MidAtlantic tomorrow

[DCAflyer]

Is a backbone going to put food on the table? Pay the mortgage? Car payment? Keep the lights on?

A good fight was fought. If you advocate a walk out, then you are shooting yourself in the foot as well. Look at the NWA mechanic strike....none of the striking mechanics have a job and NWA is still flying. NWA got more then the bargained for because they were able to replace everyone. I don't agree with what happened at NWA or at MDA, but walk off the job and principles aren't going to pay the bills.

First of all, a lot of people have options and are beginning to walk out anyway.

As for the mechanics strike at NWA, that's a huge difference. LCC has no way of training new flight attendants. None whatsoever. Or Pilots! The training equipment is gone and there is not FAA-approved MidAtlantic new hire training program.

Ever think about standing up and being a man?

 

[MarkMyWords]

I don't doubt that people can do better. I don't doubt that there are people leaving because they have options. God bless and best of luck to those individuals. You are trying to tell those, that have not figured out their options yet, to just walk. My feeling is that your advice is neglegent unless they have a back-up plan.

Many people will need the assistance provided by unemployement to help bridge them to their new career path. Your encouraging them to just walk, takes that safety net away. Since most people are 1-2 pay checks away from being broke, let them make the decision that is right for them instead of trying to orchestrate a job action that could have less then desireable consequences.

As for me standing up and being a man.....sometimes it takes a bigger man to pick and chose his battles (options) carefully and not fly off the handle when filled with an emotional rage.

 

[PITbull]

Very sorry to hear this. I think its time for new arbitrators. Don't trust the ones we have for a few good reasons. One being I don't trust certain federal mediators.

 

[crewgirl]

DCA Flyer,

Are you an employee of Mid Atlantic? If you are, do you think the smartest thing to do is to 'walk out' ??? What would that get you?

 

[Dea Certe]

This ruling is a moral disgrace. I would love to read the arbitrator's ruling. Can someone post it or a link to it?

Today I received an email from Sojourners, a Christian-based organization about the recent passing of the budget. Whate he had to say seems to me to apply in the case of the MDA employees. I've copied and pasted a portion of the statement by Jim Wallis.

"STATEMENT BY JIM WALLIS:

The prophet Isaiah said: "Woe to you legislators of infamous laws ... who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan." Today, I repeat those words. When our legislators put ideology over principle, it is time to sound the trumpets of justice and tell the truth.

It is a moral disgrace to take food from the mouths of hungry children to increase the luxuries of those feasting at a table overflowing with plenty. This is not what America is about, not what the season of Thanksgiving is about, not what loving our neighbor is about, and not what family values are about. There is no moral path our legislators can take to defend a reckless, mean-spirited budget reconciliation bill that diminishes our compassion, as Jesus said, "for the least of these." It is morally unconscionable to hide behind arguments for fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. It is dishonest to stake proud claims to deficit reduction when tax cuts for the wealthy that increase the deficit are the next order of business. It is one more example of an absence of morality in our current political leadership."

If anyone is interested in reading the whole article, go to www.Sojo.net.

I am so saddened for all the very fine people who got rooked in this deal.


Dea

 

[FlyOnWall]

DCA Flyer,

Are you an employee of Mid Atlantic? If you are, do you think the smartest thing to do is to 'walk out' ??? What would that get you?

Are you dense? You can't be an employee of "MidAtlantic", just as you cannot be an employee of such things as Ted or US Airways Shuttle. The employees in the MDA Division were US Airways employees before they were furloughed and were the whole time they've been back. In fact, the arbitrator'd decision only makes thier lawsuit stronger. If it's not a change of control then there was nothing to change control of. If it was a sale of US Airways Inc's assets then they better pay the affected employees thier respective pay under the current US Airways Inc pilot and F/A wages. This upholds the outsourcing of mainline pilot and FA jobs. Republic is hiring F/As off the street to be US Airways Express F/As on the EMB170, and did not offer a job to the US Airways F/As who were flying them. Pilots have J4Js but does anyone want to work there anyway?

The EMB crews can give two weeks notice at any time and maintain thier recall rights. There is no way to replace them while the a/c are on property. That's what DCAflyer is talking about. Stay tuned, US Airways is going to ruin the holidays for travelers again with those planes sitting around with no one to fly them. I feel really bad for the MDA crews. I know alot of the F/As and they were the best US had whol loved thier job and thier airline. Dont insult them by telling them they should wait for welfare.

US Airways sucks. It really does.

 

[Swaayze]

First of all, have a little integrity and intelligence. If you're gonna quit, give the 2 weeks notice; it will still "screw" the company and yet you won't burn a bridge (very important in this business). Now, don't forget that if you want a chance at flying for U again eventually you would only hurt your cause by leaving MDA high and dry for the holiday season.

I don't agree with the ruling (but I'm admittedly not well informed) and clearly the MDA folks have gotten re-shafted in this mess, but don't let emotions cause you to make poor decisions like I have. It ain't pretty sometimes.

Are many pilots going to CHQ now?

Are you dense? You can't be an employee of "MidAtlantic", just as you cannot be an employee of such things as Ted or US Airways Shuttle. The employees in the MDA Division were US Airways employees before they were furloughed and were the whole time they've been back. In fact, the arbitrator'd decision only makes thier lawsuit stronger. If it's not a change of control then there was nothing to change control of. If it was a sale of US Airways Inc's assets then they better pay the affected employees thier respective pay under the current US Airways Inc pilot and F/A wages. This upholds the outsourcing of mainline pilot and FA jobs. Republic is hiring F/As off the street to be US Airways Express F/As on the EMB170, and did not offer a job to the US Airways F/As who were flying them. Pilots have J4Js but does anyone want to work there anyway?

The EMB crews can give two weeks notice at any time and maintain thier recall rights. There is no way to replace them while the a/c are on property. That's what DCAflyer is talking about. Stay tuned, US Airways is going to ruin the holidays for travelers again with those planes sitting around with no one to fly them. I feel really bad for the MDA crews. I know alot of the F/As and they were the best US had whol loved thier job and thier airline. Dont insult them by telling them they should wait for welfare.

US Airways sucks. It really does.

 

[N924PS]

First of all, have a little integrity and intelligence. If you're gonna quit, give the 2 weeks notice; it will still "screw" the company and yet you won't burn a bridge (very important in this business). Now, don't forget that if you want a chance at flying for U again eventually you would only hurt your cause by leaving MDA high and dry for the holiday season.

I don't agree with the ruling (but I'm admittedly not well informed) and clearly the MDA folks have gotten re-shafted in this mess, but don't let emotions cause you to make poor decisions like I have. It ain't pretty sometimes.

Are many pilots going to CHQ now?

The entire MDA situation has been a travesty from its inception.

Under "Just Call Me Dave" Siegel and Bankruptcy Number One, the USAirways Pilots signed off on an agreement that allowed Siegel to purchase the EMB-170's, the plane that would "save" USAirways and allow them to compete with the LCC's. This included eliminating the defined benefit retirement plan in favor of a less costly defined contributution plan.

Somehow the "Embraer Division" was lost in no man's land. However, to obtain FAA blessings to operate, it was sold as USAirways to the feds and they bought it. The pilots and flight attendants operated using manuals approved for USAirways, not MidAtlantic as it came to be known.

Now, as a result of Bankruptcy Two, we find that 57% of the pilots group voted away more of the defined contribution plan devastating to all. Voted away just about every provision of the Working Agreement that made flying airliners a career, not just "a job".

Along with that, the Embraer Division, which was bought and paid for by the Pilots of USAirways givebacks, has now been sold to Wexford Capital, Republic Airways. And the employees of USAirways MidAtlantic Division, who gave all they had to make the EMB-170 an operational reality, are being screwed out of their rightful jobs. Thank you Arbi-tratitor (my spelling) Krinisky.

ALPA National as well as the USAirways MEC have blood on their hands with respect to this fiasco. I hope the independent law suit brought by several hundred MDA pilots brings ALPA back to reality and then some.

Best of luck to the MDA'ers. Take care of yourselves and your families as the Holiday Season arrives. You owe no loyalty to this sorry company. Not after the way you've been treated since this whole quagmire began.

 

[DCAflyer]

MDA flight attendants are not required to give two weeks notice in order to retain their recall rights. They can walk off the job and still carry their Boeing/Airbus division seniority. That's a fact! There are only two ways a MDA F/A can forfeit their seniority... (1) to quit within three months of the first day of your initial recurrent/requalification and Embraer training, or (2) get terminated from the MDA division for cause. The only thing a flight attendant forfeits by not giving two weeks notice is their accrued vacation. And frankly, the company usually isn't paying that anyway.

Fly on the wall... you are absolutely correct in everything else that you say. The flight attendants lawsuit should be filed shortly and believe me, the travesties that this company and others have committed will be addressed in the courts. No more of this biased binding arbitration bullshit. US Airways has gotten away with far too much for far too long and it is going to stop here and now with the pilots and flight attendants lawsuits.

And yes, it is time to bring this company to its knees. They can blame flight attendants for calling in sick, but they cannot blame us for quitting. They left themselves with no out and it's time to phuck them the way the've been phucking us since 9/11.

I'm in, are you?

DCA Flyer,

Are you an employee of Mid Atlantic? If you are, do you think the smartest thing to do is to 'walk out' ??? What would that get you?

What would you do after being screwed time and time again by these people. Wait until they no longer need you and then collect the paultry $200 per month that you stayed. First, nobody will ever see their severence... the only people who get that are the people who make over a quarter of a million. The company WILL screw the flight attendants out of it. Make no mistake.

So many people are finished with this sorry excuse of a division, which has been since day one. Crappy hotels, eight hour OPR beginning at five in the morning and getting paid only 3+30. No, not me and not a lot of people I know! It's time to give US Airways East the finger and move on.

 

[FlyOnWall]

The company decided against offering any more VFs for MDA f/as because of the high number of people quitting. I heard over 20 this month. The director of inflight leaves early Dec leaving one superviser for whats left, under 200 now? I heard they are going to remove a few planes from the schedule early because of lack of F/As. How much money do they lose by cutting or reducing those flights on short notice and keeping planes on the ground? What cities would they cut first? And what about Tgiving and Xmas? Are any EMB flights going to operate at all? And all that so they can pay an outside company costs and profits to fly them instead? And is this precident setting? Can they sell the 737s or buses now to someone and have them be US Airways Express? This is all very bad news fdor all of the airlines. How do people work for this company that does these horrible things?

 

[PITbull]

This ruling is a moral disgrace. I would love to read the arbitrator's ruling. Can someone post it or a link to it?

Today I received an email from Sojourners, a Christian-based organization about the recent passing of the budget. Whate he had to say seems to me to apply in the case of the MDA employees. I've copied and pasted a portion of the statement by Jim Wallis.

"STATEMENT BY JIM WALLIS:

The prophet Isaiah said: "Woe to you legislators of infamous laws ... who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan." Today, I repeat those words. When our legislators put ideology over principle, it is time to sound the trumpets of justice and tell the truth.

It is a moral disgrace to take food from the mouths of hungry children to increase the luxuries of those feasting at a table overflowing with plenty. This is not what America is about, not what the season of Thanksgiving is about, not what loving our neighbor is about, and not what family values are about. There is no moral path our legislators can take to defend a reckless, mean-spirited budget reconciliation bill that diminishes our compassion, as Jesus said, "for the least of these." It is morally unconscionable to hide behind arguments for fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. It is dishonest to stake proud claims to deficit reduction when tax cuts for the wealthy that increase the deficit are the next order of business. It is one more example of an absence of morality in our current political leadership."

If anyone is interested in reading the whole article, go to www.Sojo.net.

I am so saddened for all the very fine people who got rooked in this deal.
Dea

Dea,

Thank you for this insight and focus.

We need you in the union leadership arena, and the Labor movement!

You have a powerful, analytical mind.