757Driver

Amen Brother.

luv757

Agreed 100%.

EWRflyr

OK, I agree that we would probably get a long great if we flew together and hopefully we will be able to enjoy a beverage on an overnight at some point. No, I don't take it as a personal dig, but I ask you to go back and re-read my post.

Where in it did I indicate I WOULD DO ANYTHING TO HELP THIS COMPANY? I'm not the one thinking of these cost saving initiatives. I didn't come up with the iPad idea, but if it is going to be a requirement that I carry one of these things I can't do much about it. Now should the union make the displeasure about this known to management while still negotiating a contract, I have no problem with that whatsoever. If the initiatives ON THE COMPANY'S SIDE are intended to save money in the long run then I want to capture the money from these initiatives for OUR SIDE OF THE TABLE and not theirs.

I'm not picking up FO open-time like some of our Save Continental Airlines Brotherhood captains are doing in Houston. I'm not answering the phone on my days off or returning voice messages pleading to cover a trip that night. I'm not volunteering to fly during vacation like the aforementioned brotherhood captains are doing. I'm certainly not going out of my way to come up with any "olive off the salad" ideas to save this company any money. The traveling public already realizes this company has gotten way too cheap anyway based on comments I have heard from our premium travelers.

When I see press releases that state the company is offering bonds, etc. "for general corporate purposes" I think to myself: well pilot salaries are a general corporate purpose so let's make sure we get some of that money. Please understand my post for what it was: Any announcement I see that will save money, bring in money, etc. THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE TO USE THOSE SAVINGS/EARNINGS TO PAY US AND NOT EXECUTIVE BONUSES!

I fully believe we are on the same page with this topic but that we are just saying it in a different way. Oh, and that same page is:

FUPM

SpecialTracking

Ewrflyr,

One last thought. When Tilton and Brace gave out dividends four years ago, an analyst asked if that was the right thing to do considering airlines are so capital intensive. Their answer was that they had amassed a large amount cash, and it was the "shareholders" money. They deserved to get it back. Look forward to flying with you.

EWRflyr

And I as well.

There in lies the problem though. Between contract negotiation cycles (i.e. during the duration of a contract), management will do anything they want with the money they earn. We could approach them all we want or shout in the press decrying the unfairness of all the money not going to the employees, but at the end of the day management will say, "Contracts are in place. The employees agreed to them. Our next scheduled round of talks is in 24 months." The thing is they'd be right. They are under no obligation to talk to us or give us more than what's in a contract while the contracts are in place. Just as we are under no obligation to give them anything while said contracts are in place.

That's why we need to capture everything we can and maybe even have some creative, new language on our side that takes advantage of any non-employee payouts in some way. I'm sure there are some smart people who can be creative at the table who say: you give to an outside group/shareholders, the pilots get some as well. No, not talking about profit sharing in that sense either. Pay me what I am worth (and what we negotiate for) in hard dollars, but you are also going to pay me more than that when you reward others for OUR hard work.

SoCalGuy

You are 100% correct.....

Was in the hotel van yesterday morning listening to the "pride of CAL" (83 hire) pride himself on the two OT trips that he just slayed on the lobby computer minutes prior.....and he just went on and on about all his new toys he just bought.

Not too worry, those clowns are out and armed ready to help this company this summer.

Pathetic

UalHvy

Really? You really believe that money saved will somehow find it's way to your pocket?

UalHvy

You're a 767 Captain and still think that it works that way?

tozairport

Well, I probably got that from you perceived excitement over getting the Ipads. If that perception was wrong, my apologies. I just don't think that doing anything extra for the company, and getting and learning all of the features of an Ipad (so matter how simple it is), is in our best interest right now. How can they force or require me to carry one? They haven't trained me on it. It's not in my contract that I am required to carry it. If they want to save money by me carrying it, then they can pay me to carry it. It's just like this whole "integration training" debacle. They want us to do work for an unspecified amount of hours for only one hour of pay. I don't think so.

I understand that you don't pick up open time, fly extra trips, waive the contract, etc. That's the easy stuff. We need to examine every action that we do at work and ask ourselves, "is this really within the normal scope of my job?" If it isn't, then we should not be doing it. If that means sitting on our hands while watching things unravel, then so be it. It's not easy. We are people that like to get things done, sometimes to our detriment. But the company will not learn until they are being called on the carpet by CNBC, USA Yesterday, CNN, etc. I hate it. I hate operating this way. But I will not give one inch until this company starts to respect the sacrifices we all have given over the last 15+ years.

EWRflyr

Do I "really" believe it? No. Am I hopeful that the negotiators will see all these little things and say, "You seem to be saving money in the flight operations budget so we want those savings put back into salaries, benefits in this contract!"? Yes.

They aren't just going to give us this money. We have demand it and negotiate for it. The defeatist attitude is how, at least on the CAL side, we are operating under the POS CBA we have now during this summer of our dreams.

Why has a simple little joke or what have you turned into people getting their underwear in a knot???

I'll say it again and I'll repeat it for our negotiators to read:


IF MONEY IS BEING SAVED IN THE FLIGHT OPERATIONS BUDGET FOR ONE EXPENSE, THEN THAT SAVINGS NEEDS TO MOVE TO ANOTHER COLUMN IN THE FIGHT OPERATIONS BUDGET:

PILOT EXPENSE!!!!

I want to see every dime possible from every little savings idea go in OUR pocket and not management's! How is this any different than when the company announced merger synergies of $1 billion a year and we said we were going after those synergies to pay us? What is hard to grasp about this concept? Yes, smaller scale here but no different.