bluechunks

Obviously you were not employed by JetBlue in 2004 when the E190 pay rates were introduced and other changes were 'amended' when a new contract was imposed via a DHL home delivery without prior notice or discussion.

There was some resistance by A320 pilots at the time about aspects of the 'new' contract (in addition to the obvious 190 pay issues) and the response was [I'm paraphrasing the Senior VP of Flt Ops], "You don't have to sign the new contract because the existing one is still in force, however if you do not sign it your existing contract will NOT be renewed. Oh, and you have two weeks to sign this and return it to your pilot domicile."

There was no committee involved nor a pilot vote, just take it or leave it. (Just for clarification in case anybody was tracking actions vs. words during the one instance where the actual pilot contract has been amended or changed in JetBlue's short history.)

In addition, the pilot contract mainly deals with pay and employment issues. The actual 'work rules' are not in the contract but are contained in a 'guide' conveniently named the Flight Scheduling Guide. This guide is updated continuously at the discretion of the company, sometimes with, but often without pilot committee input. If one really wants to see how much has changed in a short time, find a senior pilot with a copy from a few years ago and compare the differences. And no, most of the changes are not in the pilot's favor although there have been a handful of positive improvements mostly dealing with the reserve system.

And in all fairness, JetBlue management is very progressive in their treatment of employees on a daily basis; just have no illusions about their attitude toward the big picture. They are not evil, but business is business.

RedeyeAV8r

That sounds very similar to how things were done in the old Fedex days.

It took us a while to get smarter. All it takes is a merger with another carrier, and go for 10 plus years without a pay raise and have things arbitraily changed. Your Group will get smarter too.

Airbus_Driver

Bluechunks,

Your right I was not here before 2004. Thanks for the insightful information. I was not aware of the many things you mentioned.