rickair7777

My first alpa regional would do the same thing. If you pointed out it was a contract violation, they'd laugh, and tell you to fly it and grieve it. If you won the grievance you'd get an hour of penalty pay six months later.

A union *might* stabilize the contract, minimizing random changes cooked up by the company and certain sapa peeps. But it would still depend on who you elect... a self serving MEC can screw the pilot group just as fast and hard as sapa.

Recommended union bylaw #1: No elected union rep can accept a management position with the company for ten (10) years following completion of their term. Bucking for a company position? Then don't run for office...

There's a hack for everything... the loophole for bylaw #1 will be an exception for those who lose their medical. Well guess what, any pilot can lose his damn medical any time he pleases. Don't let them write that loophole into the language.

Nevjets

Mec members are elected by line pilots. Mec members can be recalled by line pilots. That's the fix to ANY hack. Everything else is just an excuse.

rickair7777

Mostly works at a major... everybody is an adult, and nobody just fell of the truck.

Regional... not so much. Half the FO's are clueless noobs, the other half, and about half of the CA's, just want their PIC and out.

It would work better at a stagnate regional, with 10+ year upgrades.

ImPilot I Fly

I thought I was going to be the plug. Man was I wrong. Junior captain went 6/17. Crazy.

amcnd

And all of this is before the 45 new E175’s. (Ok. We have taken 2 of the 45) just think this spring when were deep in to ERJ Training.. that will cause tons more movement... basically under 6 month upgrade the next year. ..

RemoveB4Flight

Yep. Company better pray for FOs to wake up tomorrow and decide they hate having QOL and days off and take the upgrade or increase pay to something competitive to try to attract new/experienced talent.
Otherwise they are pretty well screwed as far as filling upgrade classes from here. Seems they have exhausted the entire seniority list right to the bottom. Now they will only get people as they become eligible or when they decide they are done enjoying good QOL, days off, and not commuting to junior bases to reserve.

NewGuy01

6 month upgrade for someplace no one wants to go. Still the same issue...


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Nevjets

You ALWAYS give this excuse that nothing union works at a regional. That cannot be any farther from the truth! But let's just assume you are correct about noobs and captains just wanting their pic and out, that doesn't refute what I said. It's the line pilot who is responsible. Whether that be a captain mentoring noobs or captains being enough of a professional to do the right thing. Anything else is just an excuse. Anyway, it's not like house cleaning has never happened on a regional mec. So let's just stop with the excuses already.

Nevjets

Can't they just displace eligible pilots into the left seat? That's what would happen at any other airline.

rickair7777

They could, but are presumably loathe to do so. Probably not a good idea idea to rip a bitter pizzed off millennial ripped out of his cushy life to commute to reserve in DTW. Bad ju ju. IMO they have enough problems getting FO's to do their own job right, much less trying to make them be CA's when they don't want to.

Also it would have to be JUNIOR most qualified. There is no provision to force upgrade senior FO's (this provision has existed at majors in the past, but I think is no longer utilized).

Also how do you do it? Global seniority? Rip someone out of their base and ship them to DTW? This is a regional, many would just quit... not what they need right now, or anytime in the foreseeable future.

Pretty sure they would hire formally DECs first.