pipe

Idiotic, huh. Thanks.

Four airlines and 10 years of reserve for me. I have a pretty good idea what the reserve section of a contract is all about.

-No floor R-day values
-Soft R-days
-Secondary lines being assigned reserve
-No real-time updating of level positions
-R-24 hotel standby
-Inability to see all trips and reserve availability lists in real time for contract enforcement and situational awareness
-No staging privileges
-FO's constantly getting stuck with checkrides

And on and on.

This ain't the industry norm. Sorry you think I'm idiotic. As was stated earlier - the contract treats some of our guys more equal than others. For the record, I'll be bidding well into the lines in a couple of months in my crew position. Reserve improvements remain my number one contract priority (after 4a2b). It would be nice not to have to wait until you're bidding 70% to make an upgrade livable.

PIPE

meatloaf

You're obviously not based in ANC.

Busboy

I didn't say you were idiotic...I thought what you said was idiotic. But, looking back on it, that may have been too harsh. Sorry.

Like you, I'm a refugee from two other airlines. And, I've spent my time on reserve at all of them. So, I have a fairly good idea of what goes on outside our little FDX bubble. But, is that really important? I'm sure you've heard one of these from a merged list: "You know how many Tiger guys it takes to screw in a lightbulb? Five. 1 to screw it in and 4 to tell you how great the old one used to be."

The reason that your thesis set me off is that I experienced reserve HERE at FDX, precontract. And, I can tell you that the contractual gains in OUR contract for reserves FAR outweigh the gains for lineholders. One just needs to look at a bidpack from precontract days compared to today's contract. There's no comparison.

So in my opinion, saying that our contract has left out those on reserve just isn't valid. But, like I said...The contract has much room for improvement. For all of us. And when the time comes, it'll be up to us, not our MEC, whether we get those improvements or just roll over, again.

MajorKong

Busboy, not to be insulting, but what you experienced here and other airlines in regard to reserve is cats and dogs to what others have experienced. It was not the contract that improved the reserve system here, it was the FAA after the LIT accident. The days of on reserve 24/7 ended.
Post LIT all airlines had to revamp their reserve system and there are light years between major carrier systems for reserve pilots and what we have here. I would challenge you to explore all of the major reserve systems before you just compare them to what you know pre LIT.
Believe it or not, there are better ways of doing things than what we think we have invented in our own little union bubble. Most of these improvements are cost neutral to the company. The problem here is that we are new in the contract experiences and the company wrote the first one. Add that to the fact that most reps and union leadership really don't care about improving the reserve system because it does not affect them, and it is better than what they had, and we are left with a substandard reserve system in which the company has complete control over a reserve pilots life. (Just try and move or drop an R day).

KDENPilot

Maybe you geniuses need to realize that FedEx ISN'T like the passenger airlines. Delta, American, United, etc don't have last minute extra sections due to excess volume or nearly as many equipment swaps. They also don't reroute flights too often to pick up extra passengers, nor do they "sweep" a nearly empty flight through a city to pick up passengers stranded on a broken flight. In other words, although we may fly similar equipment to the same airports, our operation is NOTHING, repeat, NOTHING like some of the other carriers who have supposedly these great reserve systems.

To address your laundry list of complaints above, let's put it in perspective.

1. Soft R-days. Do they suck? Sure, but it's 1 day, and they can only do it once per month. No big deal, especially since they can only do it for the purpose of assigning a trip. They can't just move the day for the sake of moving a day. At some companies, they actually have junior manning, where they can make you come out and fly whether you want to or not.

2. R-day values? A non-issue, you're still getting min guarantee. Whether it's normal min guarantee or 4A2B min guarantee is a debate for a different thread.

3. Secondary lines getting assigned reserve? Don't bid a secondary line, and if that's all you can hold, too bad. That means you're junior, suck it up and deal with it.

4. R24 hotel standby is not a big deal, at that point you're on an assigned pairing receiving company paid hotel, per diem and leveling. Treat is as though you're on a trip and quit whining about it. Reserve wasn't meant to be stood somewhere outside of your base, and I'm saying this as a commuter who occasionally bids reserve by choice (Normally, I'm not too picky on my line, but occasionally I need certain days off in a month, and bidding reserve usually lets me get them.)

5. The company just implemented real time viewing of your reserve leveling a couple of months ago and it seems to work fine. Whenever an assignment is made, it updates right away, although you might have to hit the refresh button on your browser to see the change.

6. As far as staging/no harm privileges, well that's one area that could be improved, but it kind of makes sense on why they don't have it. We don't let line holding guys jumpseat in and immediately turn to a long international duty period. Since a reserve doesn't know what, if any assignment, he's going to get, it's a way to make sure that we don't have him doing something that we wouldn't want a line holder doing. Granted, most reserves don't have to worry about being sent on a trip to NRT, but I don't think we want to have different rules for different reserves. Sorry if you have to come into base a little bit earlier, but again, it's no big deal. Just leave home a half day, or whole day earlier. Oh, and please spare me the complaint about having to spend another day away from home. I commute too, and if I can do it, you can too. If being away from home for extended periods of time is a problem or you, then you're not cut out to be a pilot. Do the world a favor and find a new career.

7. F/Os always getting stuck with checkrides. So what? If you're doing it by the book and doing it right, then what's the problem? No, you probably won't be able to sneak a nap on the AM outbound (which is a good thing,) but checkrides just aren't that bad. I actually look forward to having a LCA onboard. Maybe that's because I did the check airman thing for a while at the regional level, or maybe it's because I wouldn't mind being an LCA here in the future (someday I'll be able to hold MD captain.) Either way, I actually kind of like having an LCA on board.

8. The company has complete control over the schedule of a reserve, and you can't move or drop r-days. Well, duh, that's the idea. The reserves are there to cover open trips and any last minute stuff that comes up, so it makes sense that the company should have control. Nothing wrong with requesting to move/drop days, but if they say no, then live with it. After all, you were the one who bid the line. If you're junior and got stuck with a crappy lline, well again, too bad. Suck it up and move on.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of whining, crying and complaining about how bad we have it here at FedEx. WE DONT!!!!!!! Is there stuff that needs to be fixed or could be better, yes, but it's all minor stuff in the big scheme of things. Instead of being miserable on the job and griping about it on the internet, how about going all out, move the boxes, be nice to all the people from other departments you meet and just generally have fun with the job. Makes for a much more pleasant way to go through life. Even after 9 years, this is still the easiest, most enjoyable job I've ever had, as a pilot or otherwise. That's been the case no matter whether I've been on reserve over Christmas, or whether I've managed to luck out and score a sweet international trip.

FEXFNG

Man, you must have had some really sh1tty jobs in your past. Sounds like if the company decided to illegally cut our pay another 40% you would just take it and say how much you really love Fred and all the other great employees at FedEx. And if they decided to move 3 soft rdays you'd say "hey, I was really gettting tired of my wife and kids anyway, I needed a break. Thanks Fred." It's not about comparing this job to a "real" job. It's about what we worked and negotiated for and why the company feels they get to abuse these work rules. Push away from the kool aid cooler...

FDXLAG

Anyone else think R-24 was never meant to be pulled from outside of elvis?

25.M.3.v.
If, due to a shortage of non R-24 pilots, an R-24 pilot is needed in his base for shorter notification, he may be assigned to base hotel standby for a block or a portion of a block of R-days. Any assignment to base hotel standby will be for a minimum of two days and a maximum of four and shall cover the RP for which there is a shortage. An R-24 pilot shall not be assigned to a base airport standby without first having been assigned tobase hotel standby

R-24 was a good deal that the company hated. They decide to get rid of it (for all practical purpose) and we let them. They cut the number of RA and RB and "voila" we have a shortage of RA and RB; let bring in the R-24. Companies fault, no. ALPAs fault (maybe we need a real men of genius commercial) I don't know but they certainly chose not to fight this issue.

Still willing to give the "new" leadership the benefit of the doubt. But this was not the change I was hoping for. Read the R-24 settlements. Ask yourself why do we have a RA and RB shortage? This was one way to fight 4A2b. We should not have rolled over.

MD11Fr8Dog

The real issue with this is that currently the company is using this "technique" to artificially depress BLGs and, hence RLGs. If they accurately plan for the proper (and historical) number of "required" reserve lines, then the computed avg BLG/RLG goes up. But by hiding some of the "required" reserve lines in the number of secondary lines, it means lower BLG/RLGs for ALL of us!!

So, still want to suck it up and deal with it?

Gunter

I think I speak for everyone when I say we're glad you're not on the negotiating committee. Give one of those guys a call and ask them about the above. You'll be surprised that they actually think those ARE issues that need to be addressed.

MaydayMark

KDEN ... are you really the ANC ACP with a secret screen name? If not, management would certainly to be in your future.

In short KDEN ... if you're not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. You sir, are part of the problem