Captain Tony

FWIW, the merged XJT pilot group is larger than many with independent unions and could easily contract out all the "services" we already buy from ALPA if we formed our own union... If we could ever get on the same page with anything...

Nevets

Yes, but the company will pay 70% or 75% of the premiums. Also, they have to provide the same plans that they offer other employee groups. So I they want to stick it to us, they have to screw the entire company, including themselves.

todhog2

This is exactly how I feel about ALPA and pilot unions. ALPA is only what your pilot group makes it. At my last company we had some great guys that used the ALPA resources to get us a great contract. Without their hard work and smarts we would have never had what we had. An airline like ExpressJet has a lot of obstacles to overcome with a split pilot group and pilots there just to get time and move on. What's the motivation to fight when you plan to leave asap? I'm lucky enough to be following Joey to Spirit.

spudskier

I'm with ya... I hate our union. They don't do much if anything for me and all I hear about are meetings in Miami or another sunny destination that my dues are paying for. The childish bickering and middleschool antics I've seen from BOTH sides are ridiculous. Get it the F done! Don't get me wrong, I don't think much of the management team either but I have no say what so ever about that.
As much as I hate unions, the company has been built with one in place and has grown with one. Therefore they expect it, deal with it, plan for it and would hose the pilots first chance they got if it were gone. Therefore a union is a necessary evil. I'm interested in an in-house union, but it would have to be after a TA/Contract/Integration and we'd need some of these dinosaurs near the top of the list to get on the same page as everyone else on both sides.

JustAnotherPLT

Disregard

Filler

atrdriver

Going back to the overall crapiness of the May pairings...

I was just looking through the May Pairing Report and noticed DTW has 62% 4-day trips next month. If I'm not mistaken, the contract clearly limits 4-days to 60% of the total pairings. Am I wrong? And if not, why does ALPA let this happen?

oldcarpilot

I think it just says only 60% of pairings can be 4 days. It doesn't say that 4 days in each base has to be 60%. So out of all the bases 60% are 4 days.

atrdriver

Oh, so another failure of the negotiating committee. So it'd be technically legal to load up one domicile with 99% 4-days and give the Dallas boys all day trips and 2-days. Great.

JustAnotherPLT

I don't think our future contract will be much better considering...

JustAnotherPLT

A general question to all, what are you predicting will be on our next/joint contract?

Pay, work rules, min day, trip lengths, etc.