So the fact that pilots are calling in sick about 60% more than the recent historical norm has nothing to do with this? There wouldn't be a need to have pilots fly high time if there wasn't all of the extra sick calls in the first place. This is a concerted effort here. You can't tell me that these pilots are such whiny wimps that they can't handle flying 80-90 hours in a month. Southwest pilots have been doing it for years. Are Southwest pilots just tougher and harder workers than NWA pilots?
ALPA doesn't like the current work rules, and this is the only way they can create a shortage and thus cause cancellations. Did ALPA send out a memo with who should call in sick and when? Of course not, but the numbers don't lie. When on average every pilot is calling in sick for 1 out of every 5 trips, it is sick abuse/sabotoge. I don't buy that all of a sudden our entire pilot workforce is sick 60% more than they used to be.
As such, this has nothing to do with staffing; unless you propose that NWA overstaff the airline by 300-400 pilots just in case the pilots decide to do a sick-out. It's very unfortunate that NWA caved in during contract negotiations when it came to putting teeth into the sick language. Getting sick paid at 75% for all sick calls, like a lot of other employees in the company now work under, would have gone a long way to preventing this type of work action. Pilots get 100% pay on sick calls, so there is not financial disincentive for them to call in sick during work actions like this.