higney85

seriously... how dare someone clean up a dart or reply to an email on a day off or while on a layover.

notEnuf

So I pay other people to work from home but I have to commute to ATL? Well that's just stupid. Or, is this the peach tree program that only applies to the almighty, ATL C44. Double standards all over the place effectively eliminating half to two thirds of Delta pilots because they do not live within a reasonable driving distance of the office. Well, except for the MEC officers who get apartments and cars. There couldn't possibly be talented folks outside north Georgia that due to their employment at Delta are assigned to work, and required to report in another city.

CBreezy

That's, like, part of volunteering. There are a ton a positions within ALPA that do their jobs, professionally and competently and don't receive a dime for doing it. Where we decided that we should be forced to pay people for any and all work they do for the union is beyond me.

If you have to commit to a certain day to do your task, sure, put FPL in. ALPA volunteers SHOULD be doing their jobs at home or on layovers. And they should do it fully accepting that that's the reality of what it means to volunteer.

notEnuf

OK, so they work remotely. And get the job done. If you are putting in the time and the position is critical enough to the membership that it warrants FPL, why is there a location requirement?

If FPL and time behind an ALPA desk was the determining factor, why would we get rid of a tool that expidited a time consuming process and effectively doubled or tripled the amount of time to complete tasks? FPL was exponentially increased for the same results. Brilliant.

CBreezy

I'm not arguing that at all. The FPL gravy train is targeted toward only those who live in the SE US. It's absurd to make someone living in SEA fly to ATL to do computer work

notEnuf

The assumption is that it's a gravy train, which is beside the point. The opportunity to "volunteer" should be available to all members to cast a wide net into the talent pool. But, our organization refuses to modernize and on the rare occurance that it does, the decree of one man returns us to a manual process of the past decreasing efficiency and lowering our ability to monitor PWA compliance. Politics .. and perception, what exactly defines a gravy train?

Cranberry

But that's how they want it. WFH is the exception, and volunteers must spend time flying to and from ATL (rather than doing work) and expensing hotels. We all love VA ave right? What a treat. You're in the club, or out of it.

Whoopsmybad

Read the response. It said staff, NOT pilots in the statement.
But I agree, remote work should be more widely available to keep the PTC echo chamber from taking over.

CBreezy

One rep flew 50 hours on a NB fleet in the last year, as a very junior captain line holder. That same rep was fired from the scheduling committee for FPL abuse. Choo choo.

I agree that our organization refuses to modernize. Modernization would encourage more participation. The current reps don't REALLY want more partipation. They don't want group dialogue. They want you to call them and speak to them only so they can tell you exactly what to think. Any pushback is met with attitude and contempt.

As for volunteers, I know some committees allow 50% WFH. That's great. I support that. The vast majority of ALPA positions, could be 100% WFH. Instead, you're right, it excludes 2/3 of our airline from participating in the union. And we waste an INCREDIBLE amount of money on stays at the Renaissance in ATL. And meals. Want to audit FPL and expense reports? You MUST fly into base or ATL where the records are kept. You may look at them ONLY. You may not record any data from the reports.

Cranberry

Tell your reps to vote for MEC that supports WFH and modernizing the system. Right now it's given on a whim, and plenty of volunteers are told absolutely not to their requests. You'll be told "pilots won't support that because they don't get to work from home". Its much easier to fly the line and stay at decent hotels than work in the office and stay in that Rennaissance all week. I don't think anybody enjoys going there and expensing hotels/meals, those committee members who do it, do it to contribute to the pilots, and work hard.