Nov/Dec 2013 Pilot Discussion

[Reed Richards]

 

They could have, but when does a tiger change it's stripes? I imagine they are hating the checks they are going to write in the next month and not too interesting in giving away anything else.
 
You remember the old cartoon of sheepdog Sam and wolf Ralph? They cordially said good morning to each other as they clocked in for work, then they went at it. That's how I see it. It's just business to them.
 
Fair, nice has no place in their mind unless their is a return behind it. Just how it is and we shouldn't expect more. We should just learn when we do the contracts.

 
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]As to being smarter in future contract negotiations, the learning curve just hit the guard rail. Ding ding. It’s over. The last contract I remember on this property that was not associated with a merger or BK was way back in 1998. And the current JNC process can move chessmen around, but my guess is we are probably (due to the AMR BK and not our guys) going to be limited to small gains. After that process, the Native Americans will take care of the rest of our negotiations, forever. Sit back and enjoy the ride, and hope our own Reps from CLT and PHL don't make total fools of themselves in light of a new "majority."   Maybe they can get the CBL changed so they can rule over the DCA pilots for what, a few months? RR[/SIZE]
 

 

[Pi brat]

 

 
 
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]As to being smarter in future contract negotiations, the learning curve just hit the guard rail. Ding ding. It’s over. The last contract I remember on this property that was not associated with a merger or BK was way back in 1998. And the current JNC process can move chessmen around, but my guess is we are probably (due to the AMR BK and not our guys) going to be limited to small gains. After that process, the Native Americans will take care of the rest of our negotiations, forever. Sit back and enjoy the ride, and hope our own Reps from CLT and PHL don't make total fools of themselves in light of a new "majority."   Maybe they can get the CBL changed so they can rule over the DCA pilots for what, a few months? RR[/SIZE]
 

 

2018!

 

[Reed Richards]

Sorry, but the vacation language is clear.  The company is not cheating on the vacation.  They negotiated that little gem when they put it in the Green Book and punked us at USAir.  I agree the company should have given us full vacation after POR, but sadly we didn't get that in the MOU.  Its the way it is.  We can't expect the company to give us anything we didn't even ask for.  (They would not have given us back pay if we hadn't asked for it, either.)  There are any number of things that we don't have because we didn't ask.  Water under the bridge.  
 
Fair is what we voted for.  Buyer beware..... (and by the way, the same goes for the 2005 TA, that went bye bye 🙂 )
 
Don't get me wrong.  The company owes us everything in the MOU.  But nothing more... and vice versa.  

[SIZE=10.5pt]Phoenix, I am impressed. You certainly put on the big boy pants this morning! 🙂 I am so sick of our guys expecting management to do anything out of the goodness of their heart or "because we deserve it."[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]I am reminded it was our own pilots that voted away our pension, and it was our own Grievance Chair that gave away the 3% raises by refusing to allow a separate grievance process to proceed. But I am also heartened that a large majority of our reasonable pilots looked at the landscape and approved the MOU, warts and all. Thanks to them, and not cowards like those I just mentioned in our other losses, we are all moving forward with at least some semblance of hope for the better. RR[/SIZE]

 

[nycbusdriver]

Downloaded and printed out FOM Bulletin 19-13.
 
Lots of land mines in there.  Here's one that caught my attention, and anyone with a Special Issuance from the FAA Aeromedical Office should note Section 20.  I had long ago forgotten that AA has their own Medical Department (which they historically used as the first gateway to weed out pilot applicants.)  Beginning at the POR next Monday, USAirways pilots will be subject to the company doctor!  And, the company policy is that medical standards are those the FAA requires to maintain a First Class Medical.  Special Issuances are individual exemptions from those standards given by the FAA; it does not say the company will do the same.  Will this be used to "weed out" a lot of very senior pilots who have Special Issuance medicals?
 
 
And....you can get hauled in 2 times a year for "Company Physicals."  
 
Hmmm.

 

[nycbusdriver]

(Effective next week) From the Commuter Policy:
 
"A pilot scheduled to deadhead to domicile on the last leg of a pairing may
request permission from crew scheduling to be released from the scheduled
deadhead in order to travel to another destination."
 
Certainly our crew schedulers will approve these happily (yeah, right), even though the Commuter Policy is intended to be "rarely used."

 

[nycbusdriver]

(Effective next week)
 
Offline jumpseaters MUST have a reciprocal agreement with American Airlines.  
 
I suppose that means any reciprocals negotiated with US Airways are void next week, and we definitely can no longer take otherwise qualified Part 121 pilots, even though they are succesfully vetted by CASS.

 

[Reed Richards]

Downloaded and printed out FOM Bulletin 19-13.
 
Lots of land mines in there.  Here's one that caught my attention, and anyone with a Special Issuance from the FAA Aeromedical Office should note Section 20.  I had long ago forgotten that AA has their own Medical Department (which they historically used as the first gateway to weed out pilot applicants.)  Beginning at the POR next Monday, USAirways pilots will be subject to the company doctor!  And, the company policy is that medical standards are those the FAA requires to maintain a First Class Medical.  Special Issuances are individual exemptions from those standards given by the FAA; it does not say the company will do the same.  Will this be used to "weed out" a lot of very senior pilots who have Special Issuance medicals?
 
Hmmm.

 
[SIZE=10.5pt]I am looking for the announcement, but earlier this year the FAA just took a large laundry list of stuff off the Special Issuance list. It covered about 90% of the ones we are most familiar with. Your local Class I doctor now has the ability to pass you, without the special letter. I will find it later and pass it on. RR (trying to stay under 17”)[/SIZE]

 

[Freighterguynow]

You lost because the allegations were unfounded. Period
 
End of story.

Plaintiffs Amended Complaint raises serious allegations against the Defendants; it alleges acts of intimidation, harassment, and other threatening behavior against the Plaintiff and its members. While the Court has concluded that such actions do not come within the purview of RICO, it may well be that a Court of appropriate jurisdiction will conclude that such actions do constitute violations of state law and that injunctive relief is warranted to prevent this type of conduct from continuing.

 

[nycbusdriver]

19-13 is spooky.  Now I know how American Airlines got their nickname of Sky N***s!  I always thought of it as a pejorative slung by the competition in sardonic jest.  Now I see that it was studiously earned.  
 
I wonder, if the US Airways pilots had been given glimpses of the AA equivalent of our FOM (which is what we are seeing in Bulletin 19-13), whether the MOU would have passed at all?

 

[PullUp]

19-13 is spooky.  Now I know how American Airlines got their nickname of Sky N***s!  I always thought of it as a pejorative slung by the competition in sardonic jest.  Now I see that it was studiously earned.  
 
I wonder, if the US Airways pilots had been given glimpses of the AA equivalent of our FOM (which is what we are seeing in Bulletin 19-13), whether the MOU would have passed at all?

Yep. Greed wins every time.
Enjoy those nights sharing your room with your snoring, farting, talking-in-his or -her sleep fellow pilot. 
Cheers.

 

[Phoenix]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Phoenix, I am impressed. You certainly put on the big boy pants this morning! 🙂 I am so sick of our guys expecting management to do anything out of the goodness of their heart or "because we deserve it."[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]I am reminded it was our own pilots that voted away our pension, and it was our own Grievance Chair that gave away the 3% raises by refusing to allow a separate grievance process to proceed. But I am also heartened that a large majority of our reasonable pilots looked at the landscape and approved the MOU, warts and all. Thanks to them, and not cowards like those I just mentioned in our other losses, we are all moving forward with at least some semblance of hope for the better. RR[/SIZE]

 
It was not "our own pilots" that voted away our pension.  It was 13 reps that assured the pilots we would get to vote on it.  Yes, it was in the power of ALPA to do so without our vote, but the reps lied to us about getting to vote.  Those 13 own that.   Evidently things don't work out well when Officers, MECs, BPRs, or committee chairs go off and do what they want while ignoring the pilots (maybe they don't know better than all of us after all).
 
As for our MOU "our pilots" own it (though it is technically still contingent).   It takes all kinds.  The MOU would be worse than it is if if weren't for some, and it wouldn't be as good as it is if it weren't for others.  It is what it is and "we" voted for it, "according to the terms", as our good friends at Leonidas, LLC like to say 🙂.  
 
Anybody trying to take credit for it, malign others, or score divisive political points now that the sausage is finished.... well, whatever... whining about a union fighting amongst itself is about as pointless as whining that management is always writing tricky contracts.  
 
 
P.S.  When have you even not seen me in my big boy pants?     

 

[nycbusdriver]

Yep. Greed wins every time.
Enjoy those nights sharing your room with your snoring, farting, talking-in-his or -her sleep fellow pilot. 
Cheers.

 
Actually, at the first "snort," I would leave the room and head for the lobby where I would call crew scheduling and give the fatigue report and ask when suitable accommodations would be available for me to sleep properly.
 
That being said, I think the $65 rule applies to 5 hour day rooms, not overnights.

 

[Phoenix]

Because Integrity Matters....
 
Pat told everyone in January 2013 that the MOU in fact nullified the 2005 TA, specifically about the Nic and the Single Agreement...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpcQBMlJipc&list=PL06m41A7I7KgzZm-UKznxlD5UNouP-DuR
 
Listen at 0:39 seconds in.  Pat is crystal clear.  Nullity...  And look closely.. A WEST NAC MEMBER IS NODDING HIS HEAD IN AGREEMENT!
 
It would have been really neatoh, peachy, and shiite, if the MOU included the Nic.   But it didn't.  Ces't la vie.  But at least Marty is rich.  

 

[Reed Richards]

 
It was not "our own pilots" that voted away our pension.  It was 13 reps that assured the pilots we would get to vote on it.  Yes, it was in the power of ALPA to do so without our vote, but the reps lied to us about getting to vote.  Those 13 own that.   Evidently things don't work out well when Officers, MECs, BPRs, or committee chairs go off and do what they want while ignoring the pilots (maybe they don't know better than all of us after all).
 
As for our MOU "our pilots" own it (though it is technically still contingent).   It takes all kinds.  The MOU would be worse than it is if if weren't for some, and it wouldn't be as good as it is if it weren't for others.  It is what it is and "we" voted for it, "according to the terms", as our good friends at Leonidas, LLC like to say 🙂.  
 
Anybody trying to take credit for it, malign others, or score divisive political points now that the sausage is finished.... well, whatever... whining about a union fighting amongst itself is about as pointless as whining that management is always writing tricky contracts.  
 
 
P.S.  When have you even not seen me in my big boy pants?      

Of course I should have been clear.  It was SOME of the 13 reps that did the dirty deed. 
 
As to seeing you "out" of your big boy pants, I just took a $60/hr raise for that very unfortunate opportunity, should we share a room!  🙂   Bless anyone who ever ends up with me sharing a room, they won't know whether to go to a doctor or confession having watched me snort, cough, and toss and turn.  And that's all BEFORE I go to sleep.  RR

 

[Reed Richards]

Downloaded and printed out FOM Bulletin 19-13.
 
Lots of land mines in there.  Here's one that caught my attention, and anyone with a Special Issuance from the FAA Aeromedical Office should note Section 20.  I had long ago forgotten that AA has their own Medical Department (which they historically used as the first gateway to weed out pilot applicants.)  Beginning at the POR next Monday, USAirways pilots will be subject to the company doctor!  And, the company policy is that medical standards are those the FAA requires to maintain a First Class Medical.  Special Issuances are individual exemptions from those standards given by the FAA; it does not say the company will do the same.  Will this be used to "weed out" a lot of very senior pilots who have Special Issuance medicals?
 
 
And....you can get hauled in 2 times a year for "Company Physicals."  
 
Hmmm.

Here is the link:
 
These conditions can now possibly get the wave off from your own AME:
 

• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Glaucoma
• Hepatitis C
• Hypertension
• Hypothyroidism
• Migraine and chronic headaches
• Pre-diabetes (metabolic syndrome, impaired fasting glucose, insulin resistance, glucose elevation/intolerance)
• Renal cancer

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=e23ce61e-adb8-45b1-889e-9f3bdcd3ce7b