firstamendment said:
UseYour Head
Just a question. Have you gotten your first 71 hour paycheck? Brace yourself. It IS about money. Let me give you an example. If I were on reserve and only got my 71 hrs and didn't fly a trip, I would be looking at a $1000, or more paycut. When you consider I make $3000 now, that 's a hell of a percentage difference. Plus, the new system sounds great when you hear "balancing", as if it's about being fair, but everyone loses now. The most senior reserve went from bad to worst. At least in the pass, they could have a life. Now they are skipped over. This is about the company not having to pay overtime...period. When you take a thousand dollar cut in pay, hotel cost for commuters becomes more costly AND more often on this sytem. One f/a I know has paid over $500 a month in hotels thanks to this system.
I just don't think you will ever see an 80 guarantee.
As I stated on another post, I have been on reserve since 1999, with a brief stint as a lineholder during "turbo-growth". I know full well what the monetary difference is between 85 and 72, or 76 hours. As I qualified on the other post, the pay issue is a big one, and with proper staffing, everyone could fly more hours allowing the justification of a higher guarantee.
If everyone is flying 2 trips on a "time-balance" system, what could one conclude from that? We have more people than hours to fly when the time is distributed in a more balance system. This new system good for the company? Of course it is, when compared to the old system. It is a clear productivity give, no question about it, and will result in less bodies required to staff the airline. I do care about furloughs, so lets expand the airline.
But lets get back to the original intent of my post; I said, with an increase in guarantee minimum to say near 80 hours for pilots, IMHO it is a better system than the old for more pilots on reserve. Why?
1) There will be fewer reserves under this system that lives will be adversely affected
2) For all the wonderful flexibility that senior reserves had, the middle to bottom towed the line on the old system (example: senior reserves could fly on all days off, leaving no chance of flying for junior reserves except for holidays and so on).
3) The old line "you will be senior someday" has resulted in 15-20 years of people’s lives being subjected to that kind of life at the bottom.
4) Now that we have everyone’s attention, maybe something will really get done to treat all crewmembers like people who have lives, families, and have deserved better working conditions for years. What about the people who have had to have those hotel rooms for the last 15-20 years?
I find it interesting now that the seniority list is shrinking that all of a sudden the sky is falling...crewmembers have been living under a crappy reserve system for decades, and NO ONE want to hear a peep about it. They have been spending everyday in base, and just making min. pay.
I am not the one complaining here, I think the Bottom 30% of reserves have a much better life, and they deserve it.
So where do we go from here? Well to start with we all care about this subject, and then the reserve system has a chance to get better.
Try this idea:
Divide your labor group into 4 groups by seniority, A, B, C, D.
A is senior for three months for bidding, then it goes B, C, D, A with A being on reserve for 3 months, then C, D, A, B now on reserve, and so on.
You can bet your booty that we would make sure that we get a livable system then!
Or how about this idea: Everyone at the airline gets 3 consecutive days of reserve in his or her line every month? Or allow people to bid reserve into line holder lines....
I have worked under all these concepts, they work fine, and EVERYONE is treat with the respect and dignity they deserve when spending a career at an airline.
Think about it!
