Black Swan bemoaned: "The training dept rumor is 49 E 195 s to be announced soon. 118 seats, and pay 114 an hr. Nice.
You are only beginning to see what they have in the playbook now that the MOU got voted in. "
Bad news? Let me see, the company can still add 7 or 8 more 190s on the East (or West) that do not count towards our min fleet. Heck, they can add all they want, but APA will have to get two of them for every one after the POR above 31. Our min fleet still protects us until the POR. For all intents the POR will not be approved until later this year. 6 months? 8? I have not a clue. But until that time ANY 190s coming this way would be GROWTH aircraft. If the POR comes sooner, than bonus for Me (and it really is all about Me!) I would now get 14% to my DC…but I digress. Let's say we get 4 of those, combined with the 190s supposedly on the way from Republic, bringing us to 31. That leaves 45. 15 Here and 30 at APA. The Horror!
Of course the trend is to Group I aircraft. But realist have determined it would be better for OUR pilots to be flying them on OUR property, not at places like Eagle and Republic. Is the New AMR going to replace some 319s and MDs with 195s? I would guess yes. Are they going to replace 321s and 757s with 195s? I would guess no. We have furlough protections and downgrade protections that the Company gave us with little battle over…they will be Zero cost to the corporation. Just using attrition they will probably shrink this operation by 10-15%. How could they not, at least that has been the case in most mergers? But maybe not, if the economy continues to at least tread water, and looking at how little overlap the two carriers have. I personally looked at the situation like this. I am stagnated NOW at $124 an hour. It takes another 600 pilots to go ahead of me to move up to the 330, and even then on Reserve. So attrition over the next few years just gets me a better block, not a pay raise. I chose the higher pay, understanding I would have to ride out a few more years of stagnation.
So I reason, as did Legal, the NAC, BPR, Officers, and almost 76% of our pilots that the protections given justify the risk (always there, always) of moving forward. As to the contract language, I still maintain it outshines anything I have seen here in the last 10 years. It is managements' goal to keep it nebulous, it is our goal to make it clear. Somewhere when the benefits outweigh not getting EXACTLY what we want language wise, we move on. This is no different in any contract negotiations we have ever had. The more leverage you have, the clearer the language. And what was our leverage, other than trying to stop or slow down the deal? It was not much, and fighting that battle (the Ciabattoni option) paid me NOTHING in the meantime, with a risk of maybe nothing yet again, and NOTHING for anyone other than Group II and above on the East even with a win. And an economic argument by the APA in M/B that would probably crush us.
Now how about the "B" scale we are supposedly slamming down on the new hires coming here. I believe a B scale is when a new guy does the same job as the guy hired a month before him..for less pay. What we will have here is new hires making MORE than those that come before them. Please tell me next January a 2 year 190 C/O getting $114 is unfair. And a 12 year guy getting $123? That is what I have made for the last 8 years, and I have closer to 30 here. And looking forward to Jan 16, a 2 year C/O will be making $136, and the 12 year guy $148…more than a 76 C/O makes now. Industry standard rates. Nope. Improvement, how can anyone deny that?
Look guys and gals, the makeup of the BPR is not going to change, McKee rules. And the makeup of the Officers and staffing is not going to change, Hummel rules. Now might (just maybe?) be the time to circle the wagons. Other than their Nic issues, I can only guess even our West BPR members might be ready to do that. We all stand to lose a lot if we go up against the APA divided. They have their own internal issues, but I will tell you they are a mature, well-funded, and "take no prisoners" group. They could care less about LOA 93, our lost retirements, our union political history, or even our anger at a call sign. The big unknown is how we end up after the operation is merged. Our best hope influencing that outcome is unity.
Greeter