You are quick tinder now aren't you? I will try to answer your challenges without taking up too much space.
[/quote sharonstoneseat, post 67]Looking at this from a present day airline ecomonic scenario, lineholder flexibility is going to be reduced no matter what.
Says who? The scheduling/ bidding system may look drastically different, and the bid sheet may or may not be here in its current form, but I still expect lineholders (and reserves!) to have flexibility in their schedules under the new system. Our JNC knows that flexibility is one of the main reasons we do this job. They are certainly not going to negotiate it away.
Our systems are antiquated and lopsided with reserves having very little flexibilityand it needs to be drastically different. Right now it results in unpredictable FA availibility in the day to day operations much less irregular ops and holidays. Flexibilty is fine, but too much is chaotic as evidenced by the plight of the reserves in PHL and the schedulers who have to alternately ignore them and then cruelly assign them.
In your analogy, if times are tough at home, of course one would have to start working more. There should be a system in place where a FA is able to work as much, or as little, as he or she would like. It's like that at many airlines. It's called flexibility.
Stop please, no business in the world in tough times is going to go to the table and tell employees to work as much or as little as you like. Employee Cost vs. Productivity becomes a hot button when belt tightening is looming. You are aware that airlines are ceasing operations out there? Also since you keep reminding me that you have been there for the concessions and the give backs you obviously know that going into denial that "it won't happen here" will not keep BK away. Continental, which has one of the most cutting edge progressive scheduling systems in the world, has requirements on employee productivity. A lineholder can drop to 40 but if they go below that 2 months in a row they lose their medical benefits.
If you are referring to employees "picking up the slack and working harder for the company", we have, 3 separate concessionary times, since 2001. You knew that right? I am assuming you are saying this contract makes us "lazy" and we need to step up, offer more, and work harder? Wow, you would've thought our previous contracts were a cake walk then!
Please refer to my final statement for this one.
Wow, you're just ready to give it all back, aren't ya? I didn't realize as a Reserve in Philly that I was living through the "Golden Age" of aviation! Thanks for clarifying. I'll strut my stuff a little harder next time I walk thru the concourses in my uniform. We got it gooood!
I have been in the industry long enough to know that if FA's do not use forward thinking to find the correct compromises they will end up facing ugly concessions during the Dark Ages in this very cyclical business.
Seriously now, what does flexibility in a schedule have to do with current world economics?
Airlines are one of the most vulnerable industries when it comes to geopolitical economic pressures. So what does flexibility have to do with current world economics? In the big picture, and if you can draw your head out of your own little world.....everything matters.
Now, you speak of automating things such as trip sheets and scheduling functions in the above paragraph, and I am all for that. Just because we automate (I'll believe it when I see it), doesn't mean any of the flexibility (sap, sec lines, etc) has to go away. Other airlines have been much more computerized and automated for years; USAir always seemed to have had no interest.
Most of the time automation is better but sometimes it is not. My point is that you can't have a system that is constantly open to user adjustment. It costs too much in scheduling maintenance and is risky from a security standpoint (Ask any Westie about that one.)
DP et al have said time and time again that we have prepared very well for this downturn, and are parking planes after the summer season because of the rising fuel costs. They (as well as I, dont get me wrong) see the current environment, and are reacting accordingly. That has nothing to do with my contract. We are already the industry bottom feeder with regards to pay and work rules, and I still fully expect gains at the bargaining table so everyone, from senior to junior, employed as a FA is able to prosper financially. I'm realistic, and I am also deserving of a livable contract. We're through giving back.
Parking planes affects junior reserves first, another reason for a more progessive system. I expect gains too, but if you expect all gains and no pain then you are not realistic. It was possible last year but not in the year ahead. We are well prepared for this downturn, but if we don't think differently than we did before we will burn through all of that unrestricted cash and guess where that will get ya'
Fuel is the highest cost and not contollable , labor cost are second and are controllable. We all know that we don't want give up pay or vacation so guess where your contribution HAS to come from.
Sure . I'll guess. Management bonuses? Not it? I give up. May I ask if you are from the west, Sharon? Because FA's here on the east signed (to my chagrin) 3 concessionary contracts with USAir since 9/11. Promises of pref bidding to ease reserve hardship were scoffed at later on, and never materialized. LTO was supposed to work "like a dream" with Pref bidding. We were left with what we have today: A reserve group that is eligible for Federal Aid, and not one single person in management cares. Now, our reserve idle hands is not for a lack of wanting to work, it is because the system does not let us work. So, tell me again where the contribution you speak of HAS to come from?
I'll also add that you are quick to say you want to keep pay and VAC, but sell work rules right down the river, which is the biggest mistake you could make. I've said it before, once those work rules and rigs are negotiated away, you will never get them back. Ever. Pay can be negotiated back, work rules? Not so much. That said, it's no matter, because we're through giving back.
Management bonuses are unethical when employees are not receiving pay increases, period. If you run into any American FA's ask them about their program regarding this.
I am not advocating selling anything down the river, especially reserves. But I do anticipate that using the historical tactics that are grounded in the emotions of the airlines past will block my ability to see solutions for the company and my work group for the current environment. Southwest survives nicely all of the time no matter WHAT they do because they use evolutionary thinking in their entire model. I want negotiations to move at a successful pace, not be mired in the wounded past.
As far as if I am on the West or East...it is sufficient to say that I have walked in several pairs of painful moccasins here....including strutting my stuff through the concourses as a PHL reserve.
good luck! 
