Actually your right sdavis,
It is a mute point and the truth is the pushbacks are, for all purposes, lost. Everyone knew once they gave 50/50 to utility, it was the beginning of the end and we wee it now with the ramp. I actaully think the initial intention was to take it all away when the utility went under Customer Service for a while there.
And A & P Tech is right on the money, LavMan, you better go out to the ramp and do some work once in a while. You obviously spend too much time in the breakrooms talking about ancient history with your pals.
If the CLT mechanics do 99% of the pushbacks then they must be well staffed. Because in PIT, there is no way they could do that many pushes. With all the Daily checks and A/C moves to and from the hangar there aren't any left to do anything. The truth is, things are probaby like they are in PIT. If the mechanic is not there, then the ramp automatically pushes the a/c. You probably don't even know that it is happenening this way.