Flying Boxes

It is called "Preferential Bid System" for a reason!

It is NOT "SENIORITY Bid System".

Your seniority will be priority #2, because priority #1 is efficiency (saving $) for the company!

PBS DOES NOT HONOR SENIORITY. If the trip a senior pilot wants does not create the efficient solution, a junior pilot will get that trip (might not even be within the junior pilots preferences!). The CBA does not allow you to volunteer for reserve, it is given based on efficiency! (NOT SENIORITY)

anything resembling honoring seniority is likely a lucky accident.

2cylinderdriver

First of all PBS can and does have systems that honor seniority by building one line then the next and not having a global splat. The "ignoring" of preferences eventually happens when they simply can't be met, junior is junior. It depends on what you bargain. My question was specifically to the poster I quoted who said "it does not work like that" and he was talking about our current secondary line system at FDX. I disagree, as the CBA says they are built in seniority order and my experience is that we do not ignore "preferences" for the greater good of the solution. If your request is legal and the trips are open, you get them, if not, more than likely the pilot made inputs that made those request(s) not doable. (legality, BLG issues etc)

Last, the CBA (the current one, read it in section 25) can allow voluntary reserve on secondary lines, if the parties agree to new software. So even if we turn down this TA, the parties can agree on a new and better software and allow reserve blocks to enter into the equation. This new SLR is light years better than one line in the current CBA on simply saying we can "agree", lots more structure and ultimate authority to design a good system or no deal on our end.

Nightflyer

Has anyone asked the union why the signing bonus is not based on crew position on date of signing? (Like it was in 2006?)

Perhaps if it was, the bonus would be lower, and might not look as enticing?

kronan

Ahh, I see now

We don't want to work on a NEW system because the old system doesn't work the way a pilot would build it....if only there was some way we could make management work with us....maybe a pilot/mgt working group....maybe needing Union involvement for FINAL ACCEPTANCE versus having to accept whatever programming mgt implements.


I am a commuter, and there are months where I'd rather have a block of R days than all trips if it resulted in my working when I want. Months like December for example

MajorKong

I asked in the Q @ A section on the union website. Nothing but crickets. I guess they don't want to answer that question.

kronan

About to DH home, still there must be SOME level of work where dues would exceed the signing bonus. But here goes, values are based on max pay, 1000 hours, 5 year comparison then 2.8....then signing bonus

WB Capt. 25.4k, 14.2k, 39k. (Intl pay adds another .8)
WB FO. 18k, 10k, 26k

NB Capt. 21.9k, 12.2k, 33k
NB FO. 15.8k, 8.9k, 22k

kronan

Oh, that assumed dues had stayed at 1.95% vice the reduced rate of 1.9 which was effective Jan 2014...and used the higher base salary rates

kronan

Hmm, thought maybe a longtime LCA...but that only adds 1.9k to the 5 year totals

busdriver12

Try bidding VTO's for years, and when things go south, email CRS for an explanation. Don't assume that you made a bad input, when you know that you didn't. If you have no conflicts-no vacation, no carryover, no training, you should get your specific trip requests that aren't already filled, and if you didn't, why? The answers you get (if you're lucky enough to get them), and the screen shots of what they entered, may surprise you. The system seems to work much like what you think, some of the time (certainly for those more senior). However, the assumption that people have that their inputs weren't entered, or that they were just screwed again, or that the other complaining pilot just boffed his inputs---may not be the case. It's just the programming.

If you can accept that the company puts in their request on your VTO first, to a target BLG, then it completely makes sense of why other people can get your specific trip requests. It happens to me quite often, but I generally don't complain, when at least I get some of what I'm asking for (or am not planning to work much that month). Complaining to the union has done nothing, futures used to occasionally fix it when I called, now, nothing is changed.

busdriver12

I don't mind a new system, as long as the pilots get to vote on it. Don't know if I want a couple of people deciding on what is right for us. My concern is that it's not just a secondary system, but a program that they intend to force everybody into.

In December, do you think you are going to get the week of Christmas off if you ask for reserve blocks elsewhere in the month? Why would that be any more likely than if you asked for trips outside that week? Now they will have more reserve blocks in the VTO system (many more in the week of Christmas), forcing more VTO holders to work that week, and even more on reserve.