It doesn’t take long to conclude that management is trying to produce a contract that contains the least restrictive pilot provision of each contractual item. To do so, they are taking each significant element of the contract and forcing a comparison to the carrier whose contract contains the least restrictive similar provision. Instead of taking a carrier’s complete pilot contract and comparing all of the provisions within that contract, management is swinging for the fence on everything. By doing this, management is clearly aiming for a pilot contract that is much lower in costs than any other pilot contract, far beyond any definition of reasonable or necessary, and clearly not an industry competitive contract.
One of those provisions is below:
“Eliminate two hour pay for Reserve Availability Periods in excess of seven (7) per month.”
Not unlike what they attempted in 2003, Management has made no secret of the fact that they are trying to implement many of the scheduling provisions currently flown by Continental pilots. Among the most onerous of those scheduling rules are duty rigs which will be discussed in a subsequent posting. In the case of reserve availability pay, management is trying to “cherry pick” some of Continental’s contract while ignoring many of their other provisions concerning reserve pay.
Currently, American Airlines pilots who are on reserve are either in a short call (reasonably available) status or long call (12 hour) status. To provide domestic pilots with an acceptable quality of life so they are not tethered to the airport for their 19 days of availability, management is required to pay a pilot two hours of pay if they are placed in a short call status for more than seven (7) days per month. Reserve pilots at American are guaranteed 73 hours of pay per month. If they fly more than 73 hours, they are paid for those hours as well. Management is incentivized to use their reserve domestic pilots productively.
Management is now proposing to eliminate the two hours of pay for additional days assigned above seven (7) for short call so that they can put pilots on nineteen (19) days of short call a month. Continental has a short call and a long call system as well. Short call pilots have unlimited short call availability as management is proposing but their pilots are paid 76 hours of pay, not 73 hours as AMR management proposes to pay. Long call pilots at Continental are paid 72 hours a month and are paid one (1) hour of pay for each short call period over two (2) per month. A long call pilot has to be available within nine (9) hours and a short call pilot available within three (3) hours.
Under management’s proposal they want to have the flexibility that Continental enjoys in assigning pilots to short call, but they don’t want to guarantee pay for it like Continental does…
American also proposes that any pilot can be assigned at any time in the month to either short call or long call for no differential in pay. Continental has a bid system where pilots either bid short call for 76 hours of pay or long call for 72 hours of pay prior to the month.
AMR management wants it all and then some more…
AMR management instead wants to “cherry pick” Continental’s unlimited short call availability but they don’t want to pay extra for it like Continental does. They want to place any reserve pilot in a short call status at anytime throughout the month, whereas Continental assigns a pilot to either long call or short call for the entire month prior to the start of the month. If Continental needs additional short call reserve pilots during the month, they must pay a long call pilot an additional hour of pay on top of their 72 hour guarantee for each time they use the pilot for short call more than two times a month, unlike Americans’ current system which does not require extra pay until the eighth time a pilot is placed in a short call status.
Under Continental’s contract, if a long call pilot is placed in a short call status seven (7) times during the month Continental must guarantee that pilot 77 hours of pay. Also at Continental, if a pilot bids a short call schedule, they can be placed on short call an unlimited amount of days but are guaranteed 76 hours of pay for the month. At American, they currently guarantee reserve pilots 73 hours for the ability to assign seven (7) short call days a month in addition to their other 12 days of availability.
American’s pilots are already guaranteed fewer hours for each short call day. Management wants more…
Under Continental’s contract, their pilots would be guaranteed either 76 hours of pay or 77 hours of pay for their management’s ability to assign a pilot the same seven (7) days that American is currently able to assign. However, American only has to pay a guarantee of 73 hours of pay. Under management’s proposal they want to be able to assign a reserve pilot to unlimited short call days for no extra pay.
Is AMR management “cherry picking” or in good faith trying to negotiate an industry competitive contract?
