Sniper

Do this first, rather than blasting him on a forum publicly without giving him a chance to explain (what I did).

MAG tried this after 9/11, but ALPA stopped it. Just keeping it factual.

RG was hired by MAG in 2000. After securing the left seat of the ERJ out of seniority and then going on a sightseeing tour of DC, he moved into flight management. He left MAG for US Airways in late 2007, decided he didn't like the idea of being a junior FO with a commute to the west coast (he'd be furloughed now too, to boot), and came back to Mesa. Somehow, he never lost his longevity, but did lose his seniority - so he didn't go on a LOA. Where was ALPA on this one? Who knows, but he is management, and won't be getting furloughed. He was not an A-Lister.

So picking up open time while your fellow pilots are on furlough is ok by you.

And your logic - if you're below min guarantee, you can pick up enough to get back to it?! It's called "guarantee" for a reason - you're guaranteed to get it, no need to fly to it! And if you somehow swapped to go below min and won't get your guarantee anymore - don't swap if you can't take the hit! Problem solved.

You guys can talk circles around this if you want, but, in the end, it's simple. You voted in PBS = you voted to furlough these 100 guys.

Oh, just to throw another wrench into the mess - Island Air has Dash's. Looks like there might be a shortage of Dash drivers @ Mesa. Not saying it will happen, but codeshare is KILLING the future of all US pilots. MAG pilots should be flying those routes in MAG Dash 8's in competition with Island Air, just as WN pilots should be flying passengers to Canada and Mexico, United (or even Air Lingus) pilots should be flying their own passengers to and from Europe, etc.

Great TA. Can't wait for the next round of excuses.

Where's MAGHub?

AirWillie

If they're around till then I'd be very rich. 10000 shares boyyyy. If these furloughs aren't because of PBS then the timing is very suspect since PBS will start around the same time... I think around the time of the TA PBS was a big win item by mesa mec wasn't it?? To be fair though, mesa is doing badly financially so it can't all be all because of management, the pilots did have the right to be concerned about their jobs, which apparently has proved futile in the end anyways. When will people learn, you will never win against a pos bottom feeder management....

DublinFlyer

No I don't think picking up opentime is okay. But for the past two months, I've swapped and dropped, and have made an average of 55 hours of pay for both months. That's my own doing, but I know a captain that swapped some stuff around (since they are limiting what we can do with FLICA) and is now BELOW his guarantee, which he will not get paid for. He has a family and is in jeopardy of losing his house. He still does not pick up opentime above his guarantee, just a few more hours to get BACK to guarantee. I am in total disagreement with picking up opentime overtop of guarantee. Hell I don't even pick up ANY opentime!

And as far as the other comments in your post, I guess I will finally break down. I will PM you about your "concerns."

SpiraMirabilis

There is nothing wrong with using the open time pot to massage your schedule while there are people on furlough so long as you dont end up with more hours than what your original line held.

Airfix

IF PBS did cause these furloughs there is a way to get these guys back to work. Pull out PBS from the contract. Remember we have a year from signing to excercise that option. At the moment nobody really knows if PBS is going to help us build the schedules we want. I say give it a few months, put it to a vote and then pull the plug if that is what the pilot group wants, if this pilot group can ever grow a set and figure out as a team what it wants/needs.

Okay so we give up block or better but who's getting paid block or better anyway? Only today I was over block by 30 minutes due to a wait for an airstart. The door was closed and brake released iaw ground personel instructions. Tonight I noticed that someone has changed our ACARS times in CrewTrac to match a normal block time. What's up with that? Who is authorized to change our ACARS times? It seems our company is doing everything they can not to pay block or better. How dishonest are these people and how much effort is it going to take me to monitor every leg and every pay check to make sure I get paid my rightful block or better.

I do suspect that PBS was the straw that broke the camels back with regard to the furloughs. It seems likely there were many other factors at work. I've no evidence of this. It's just a hunch.

Airfix

Sniper

Good idea. That requires the MEC to admit they made a mistake. Ask Delta, Fed Ex, and Southwest how hard it is to get leadership to admit they messed up.

This is old hat for MAG. Is BL still around (sortta' rhymes with a 'mess a' porn')? It's illegal to do this, of course. Take digital photos of your times on the aircraft and in the logbook, and log in to CrewWeb and take a screen shot and print it out before the times are changed in the evening. Each evening after flying, log into crewweb, and then call dispatch to report the errors. If they refuse to change them, file a grievance with ALPA. Remember, your logbook is the final authority, and should agree with the times put in the trip can, which is a 'company record', so they know what the real times are. Self-disclose to your POI. It won't be the first time the POI sees this one.

For all those who aren't at MAG - yeah, I'm serious.

Airfix

The problem is that they have done away with the AFML (Aircraft Flight and Maintenance Log) and it is now an AML (Aircraft Maintenance Log). No flight times are recorded in the new AML so we have no paper document of the times, except our logbooks!

Every time I have seen times recorded on CrewTrac in error I have gone through the pilot lounge "Correct CrewTrac Times" form and submitted my change. It has always been accepted. However in these tough times and with the company interest in reducing block or better I can see it getting harder to change these times.

ALPA has asked that every time the company has changed times that we should submit discrepancies to the union, which I have done, so they can log the data for any future grievance. I email a screen shot of the CrewTrac page, a scan of my logbook and copy of the change request form that I have submitted.

On the whole I am scepticle about our managements ethics. It is funny that prior to block or better about 40% (est.) of my flights were over published segment times and since block or better I've only had a handful of flights go over the segment times. I'm sure the company manipulates the published segment times for their benefit but we have no way to police this. The NEXT contract should have some union input and oversight of segment times.

To fully police this new contract wrt pay will take a lot of effort by each individual pilot. I'm still trying to work out the easiest way to just track and compare awarded block to actual block. There is not enough room in the little red log book.

At some point the amount of effort to police the company gives diminishing returns in error correction. I need to find a balance but the point is none of us should have to police the company.

I remember in the sales pitch the union gave us, one of their reasons for not having water tight language in the contract is that there have been so many changes in our management that these new managers are "good guys" and are working with the union and we all agree on the intent! Yeah right!

With regard to the furloughs, even if hell freezes over, the people that voted in this contract will never ever vote out PBS and lose block or better just to get some anonymous junior people their jobs back. Its a fact of life with this predominantely selfish pilot group. The rest of us just have to deal the best we can with the hand we have been dealt and try to improve things for the people that come after us.

NoJoy

Yes unfortunatley PBS will not be voted out. The Mesa lifers who are part of the 418 will not vote out PBS. It is that simple. Being on the streets right now sucks; hopefully these pilots have learned what it is like being jr at Mesaland and plan accordingly when they have a chance to come back.

paxhauler85

Spoken like a naive and selfish DEN guy.

DENpilot

Not sure where you get off saying that... and I don't appreciate the personal attack.

I am in this and am on the side of guys should not pick up open time period. Open time means there is a need to be filled, a need necessary because people have been furloughed.