thepotato232

So, this is the final product of a ridiculous seven year negotiation - spanning furloughs, acquisitions, divestments, and wrapping up in the middle of a self-induced "pilot shortage"? Pay worse than 50-seat operators, and work rules worse than Gulfstream Air 2.0?

Yeah, that's about what I expected. As much hardship as this pilot group has already endured since 2007, BB & friends clearly think they are broken, exhausted, and ready to pounce on table scraps and beg for more. I parted ways with RAH quite a while ago, but I know what my vote would be, and I'd bet money a solid majority of the current pilot group feels the same way. Good luck, guys.

Ted Striker

Hold the line RAH. Xjt and Eagle have. Lets send a message and pretty soon you will see all this feed get folded back into mainline = more jobs for us. Cave, and its just whipsaw city.

Hetman

I get the image of an old beater car being fixed up. A little baling wire to hold the muffler up, a little sawdust in the tranny, a can of stop-leak in the radiator, a coat hanger for an antenna and a little square of black tape to hide that pesky red light on the dash. If you wash it really well and turn the radio up loud it will run better.

You should look up Joe C, former manager of scheduling, and find out how much he will charge to review the scheduling section.

The Drizzle

He's easy to find, he's on FB.

ATCsaidDoWhat

The "lowlights" are probably these. The NMB, who was fed up with you before and had parked you because of CM's antics, will park you again. For a lot longer. So you'll get to keep the current contract and since the NMB won't release you, despite what CM thinks...you'll have no leverage to demand anything.

And ALPA will doing handstands because if this passes, it means they have been lying to their regional members about negotiations, and now they'll have to get serious about negotiating for their members or risk losing them. If it fails...big win for them because they can say to their folks, "See?..we told you so. There's nothing out there we can get for you."

For a contract that is a 4 year deal that allows for you to reengage at the table in 36 months...a point where you will have SERIOUS leverage because of where the industry will be...or in 3 years, the NMB finally decides to bring you back to the table at your current rates and rules?

Figure it out.

Bzzt

Honestly until AA merged with you guys a lot of people didn't even apply to US Air. I know of a few Eagle CAs that turned down positions at Airways over the years. Everything has changed now, but it wasn't always this way. You guys hit the lottery just like AirTran did.

Gangsta

Is Silver 1:2 duty rig or 2:1?

Chuck D

What are you proposing? That we just accept a contract with some major holes in it? Our current contract is a 4 year one... and that's lasted 10+ so far. So it may be reasonable to go in with the mindset that we could be stuck with this until 2024. I think it's pretty sane for us to demand something without gaping loopholes, since we're pretty familiar with how good RAH is at exploiting those. And I think we should also not strive to set junk precedence for the rest of the regionals.

tom11011

Those aren't loopholes, that language was specifically agreed to with the full knowledge there would be different ways of interpreting. Why its done that way, who knows but its always been that way.

You guys have waited so long for a contract, it is reasonable to assume that this next one will likely have to take you into 2025 or longer. It almost makes sense to table it for a few months, things are about to get really interesting. This is just the beginning of shortage, the shortage doesn't even kick in to full effect yet for 5 years let alone reach its peak. Six months from now airlines might be paying much higher then what you have negotiated.

Whatever you decide, the next airlines agreement is going to look to yours as the one to beat. And airline management might be ok with that being able to gloat how they have the best pay scales in the industry even though they only pay 10 cents more per hour then your new contract rates.

Then of course there is the C300 rates. Agreeing to this is like adding another rung on the ladder you have to climb to get to the majors. It's probably best to not even have an airplane like that on the property.

Chuck D

Whether I/we want C-Series on property or not has no bearing on whether or not they actually come on property. The only thing we have input on IMO is that if they do come here they come in at or above industry average pay for the seat count or MTOW. Right now this does not appear to be even close to the case. That alone is a massive loophole and reason enough to go back to the drawing board. So I'd agree that if this takes another 6 months to fix problems, then so be it.

As for interpreting other loopholes as intentional or unintentional, you've got me. Our negotiations were taken over by IBT National without our input, and I'm not convinced their goals match ours. As for our NC members, while I think they had the best of intentions, either Stockholm Syndrome set in, or they were overruled by IBT National. We'll see soon when the ExCo gives the thumbs up or down.