jsled

F that Lambourne. They are not negotiating in good faith. The bankruptcy sacrifice was defined as x billion for x years. Well, that ended on Jan 1, 2010 but they are intent on dragging it out indefinetly. Meanwhile, our careers are ticking away while other carrier's F/Os earn more than our Captains! 2000+ flights are outsourced daily, and they are intent on adding more (as evidenced by their bold 70 seat CAL violation). Can you imagine being a 10-12 year F/O on the street TWICE? Never happened here in the history of this place. Certainly never happened to you. Do my job "with dignity?" YGTBSM. When the company starts treating me with dignity, we can talk.

throttleweenie

Sorry, but Smisek doesn't give a rat's Ⓐⓢⓢ about CH 9, or what passengers say, or anything about flying. UAL is a business, pure and simple. Not an airline, per se.

ALPA is certainly not perfect, but it's a lot better at eventually securing a contract than any individual is. I'm waiting just like everyone else, but I'm not about to dump my emotional baggage on my passengers. How about this spin: the more profitable UAL is, the better our contract will be. Not a perfect concept, but better than chasing business out the door.

TW

Lambourne

Excellent post! The drama and emotion of the teenage girls that want to punish the passengers is tired and old. If you look at c2k we did more harm than good to our image for pay rates we got to keep for 18 months. Perhaps repeating history is better for some. I would prefer to do this contract with rates I get to keep full term.

L

jsled

Yes. I especially like the rates we are getting paid now. Like $159 for a 767 Captain, which is less than a Fedex F/O makes. Or $137 for an Airbus Captain, which is less than a SWA F/O makes. Do you like these rates Lambourne? Oh, I can see making a living at $159 an hour like yourself and T/W, but we have F/Os topped out at second year SWA pay! ($94/hr is UAL 12th year pay, or 2nd year pay at SWA!!!!!!) BTW, did you like it when the Company called in sick last month for a negotiation session? Or how about the joke of the Sec 5 proposal they returned last week. They are laughing at us. Play nice if you wish, I will be the "teenage girl".

intrepidcv11

Well Sismek does need to fatten that bonus. After all he's probably a little ashamed that he's just an airline boss when he goes to those Harvard Law Reunions.

gettinbumped

Nope, sorry. They are getting what they pay for from me. Wendy got PLAYED by Smilton, and BLEW whatever leverage we had as soon as the merger was approved. Didn't you notice that the barnburner negotiations that were occurring magically STOPPED that day? That all the company promises have been reneged? Every proposal they bring us now is WORSE than the one they brought the week before! You do realize that their proposal on the table is for CONCESSIONS to every part of the BK Contract we have now, right? Emotions?? Absolutely. I fly my jet safely, period. That's it. Nothing more.

Now excuse me, my bus is coming to pick me up and take me to school. I can't wait to see Bobby now that we are back from Spring Break! Since he just turned 13, I can say I'm going steady with an older guy! Like, OMG!!!

throttleweenie

Our current contract was negotiated under duress. The company was in bankruptcy, it had Wall Street creditors insisting on seeing our pensions dumped, and it had a crooked BK judge in it's pocket.

None of those conditions exists today. The pilot contracts that have been negotiated since my hire date in 1986 have all dragged on for several years. There were times when our MEC dragged their feet instead of the company. This is no different.

You're no more frustrated than anyone else, myself included, but I don't believe that sabotaging the operation is the way to speed up contract negotiations.

There is one exception, however, and that is to find ourselves at the brink of a well thought-out and carefully planned, legal work stoppage. If the company truly wants to avoid that and they believe that we are well-prepared for a strike and we see it as the only alternative at that time, we will have a contract. If they truly don't care whether we strike or not, then they were never going to negotiate in good faith anyway.

The way to find out their intention is to methodically organize a strike. Have you heard of the Strike Preparedness Committee? It does not advocate acting like a teenage girl. It advocates thinking like adults whom know what they want and know what they have to do to get what they want.

The best thing every one of us can do; UA and CO pilots, is to become actively engaged with their local Family Awareness programs, which is an integral part of the Strike Preparedness Committee, and show the company our solidarity. As long as the company moles read all over the 'net how disjointed this group can be when it tries, they have no reason to perceive the threat of a strike as real.

In 1985, the UALMEC struck United Airlines. On the vast majority of levels, it was a success. The reason is because the vast majority of United Pilots were in strong unison.

That is what will secure a contract, and not refusing a product from paying passengers.

TW

syd111

Speaking of bonus's anyone have any idea how much all the management pilots got from the profit sharing. I keep trying to figure out just hw many management pilot's we have now, you know the guys they have to do things like manage apu usage and the chief pilots that make a big deal about going to narita to"help" out. Funny thing is I would think 99% of the pilots can figuer things out for themselves in narita and when to start the apu and things like that. Sure seems like a lot of show going on around here.

I sure don't need another e-mail from a chief pilot to tell us how they are in japan and all that bs. Seems like many e-mails from these guys just tell us what a great job they are doing, please.

EWR73FO

Preparing for a strike that might happen in three years is not my idea of prudent decision making. I think it's time to end this farce called the railway labor act. Has this ever done any good in any situation other than to simply delay the neoiating process? Yeah it keeps us working under those same substandard and concessionary rates and workrules we have all come to love and enjoy but what good has it done?

Management drags negoiations out for years, union leaders suck the proverbial teet while generally not working the line and the average line pilot gets screwed after the stockholm syndrome rears its ugly head and we are snockered into voting for another sub-standard POS with half or less of the retro pay we should have been making from day one.

Sorry, strike this.

jsled

Yes I have. In fact, I know the Committee chair. I doubt you will see ch 9 on in his cockpit. I turned it on when I was a Captain, but I wouldn't now...not until I had a TA. In fact, there are a whole list of things I did before that I don't do now. I suspect I am not alone. I wonder what that costs?

Sled