JayHub

I strongly believe that this November recall for flying, that wasn't supposed to surface till May, was some form of negotiating table tactic to prevent a strike in early 2010.

JAAB9TEEN

Once again more depressing news at TSA. I don't know why United would even consider us when we've voted to strike, because of there relaxed negotiations. I don't see how we could be under bid or not agree to a contract when we are close to last as far as the pay scale goes to 50 seat jets. I can't remember the last time we've got any flying that we had to negotiate. Let's all thank United for including more pilot groups to help pay for the airline by making us pay to commute to work. Good luck Xjet and ASA, enjoy another payroll deduction.

JetBlast77

You're forgetting one thing; XJT already has the aircraft sitting around doing nothing right now (reference the "charter" department). It doesn't matter how cheap they were to secure the flying, the company has been operating for the past year with 30 a/c doing practically nothing. Putting these aircraft into service will only help the company generate more revenue; it won't result in any paycuts. As far as TSA claiming they need to send the letters for the recall notice per the contract, come on people, its not that hard. All they would have had to do is send recall notices after the fact with an amendment attached that each pilot had to sign forfeiting their 30 day recall notice. You think pilots wouldn't be willing to give up the 30 day notice if it meant they could come back for sure? OF COURSE THEY WOULD. There are ways to get around everything if management actually cares about the pilot group.

mking84

Never thought about it that way, but you are 100% correct. The thing is if they did what they did, secured the flying, they are heroes.......and wouldnt it be nice to be the hero when you are in contract negotiations.

flyinaway411

for those of us still working at this dump, let this serve as a reminder of why there is such a strong strike vote, and when the time comes (which should have been a long time ago), stick it back to the SOB's!

CaptainCarl

Management really jumped the gun here. Some forethought on their part would be nice.

bryris

I feel for everyone involved in this mess. 11 months ago, a decision process that took me 6 months to work through resulted in my decision to resign from the company instead of dealing with the furlough mess. There were a slew of reasons, the primary being the opportunity cost lost in doing something else more productive with my time than to wait around to be f'ed at the exclusive whim of TSA (in more ways than one).

I'll admit, when the news of this recall came out, I felt a tad of remorse for the decision I made and even had a tough time sleeping that night. While I felt great for my old TSA buddies, I knew the road that I committed to 11 months ago wouldn't lead to another professional cockpit for at least 3 or 4 years - 1 of those is nearly up now.

However, this whole debacle totally obliterated any remorseful feelings I had and just served to reiterate to myself the thought process I went through before I went in and dumped my stuff on DH's desk.

I figured TSA wouldn't recall for a loooong time and hedged my bets that even if they did recall, it would coincide with the beginning of a marked industry wide rebound. That marked growth would lead to the ability to get on with a company that is potentially worth a damn.

Long story short - if you've got something else - AT ALL - and TSA is your only game plan right now, I'd strongly suggest a change in path if at all possible. This recent episode just proves that their view of managing employees is akin to placing an order for airplane tires - "opps, I'd like to cancel my order!"

Herbie

And once again, mangement shows their true colors when it comes to the ability to run a successful airline. And lest we forget, this isn't just a slam to all of the furloughed pilots (myself included), this is bad news for the whole group. F/O's that are on endless reserve, downgraded captains and just everyone in general.

I was very leary about all of this from the word go and I said I would not give my answer until there was news. Thankfully, I am still employed elsewhere and hopefully I won't have to count on going back to TSA to get in the cockpit again. They are truly not worthy of any of the services that the TSA pilots provide. It is a great group of people that I really enjoyed working with and I am pretty sure prisoners get treated with more dignity and respect than we do/did. Anyway, Rant over.

Great Cornholio

I think the payroll deduction comment was about UAL's "non-rev" privs that cost 10 20 or 50 bucks + tax PER LEG....even for the employee. Basically you get charged to commute to work....it gets payroll deducted so you have no idea when its gonna come out.

flyinaway411

from the MEC:

Fellow Pilots,

By now most of you are aware that Trans States Airlines did not prevail in securing additional flying under the UAL RFP despite having a low cost, competitive bid. Unfortunately, this means that all recall letters will be rescinded for our furloughed brethren. TSA President Rick Leach has posted a memo on the TSA OPS website explaining why TSA was unsuccessful with its bid. A TSA MEC Special Announcement has been emailed to all furloughed pilots informing them of the pending rescission. The MEC remains committed to the return of all furloughed pilots to active status and the overall success of Trans States Airlines.

This seems like a good time to reflect on what RFP’s really mean. While a successful bid would have been advantageous to TSA pilots, especially furloughed TSA pilots, we can’t ignore that much of this flying was originating from a fellow ALPA carrier. Our gain would have been at another carriers loss. Our furloughed pilots would return while another carrier would be furloughing. Hundreds of pilot’s careers would be restored while just as many would be recycled. This should highlight the fact that “OUR” flying is never truly “OURS”. This fact has been witnessed time and time again over the last decade. This should reinforce the work that the Fee For Departure Committee (FFDC) is doing to establish protocols and provisions that would allow pilots to go from one airline to another with seniority and longevity intact. In an ideal scenario, pilots would merely work within an entire airline system with the capability to voluntarily bid to vacancies at
other carriers maintaining both their seniority and longevity when the move from one airline to another. This would eliminate the endless whipsaw between pilots at competing carriers as well as eliminate the price wars that air carriers themselves engage in over RFP’s. Ultimately, it leads not only to greater stability for pilots but also the regional airlines themselves.

Some of you may be thinking…”Why would I want to allow a pilot from another airline to jump in our seniority list and knock me down a number?” Well, everything has a cost. The cost of having a truly stabilized career instead of constant up’s and down’s and recycles is to buy into an insurance policy. By purchasing this insurance policy you get to advance your career with a better quality of life, better pay likely, few scope concerns, built in furlough protection and a much more stabilized career. Obviously, these concepts are very new and are only in their infancy stages but one-the-less they are being developed by the FFDC in an effort to improve all our careers. Time will tell if theory can one day be put into practice. One thing is certain, these concepts will take years and maybe decades to see if they come to fruition. Until then we need to be our own best advocates by helping each other out in our time of need.