Possible pilot strike at Delta

[Guest rattler]

You have an oppurtunity to prove me wrong, take it or leave it.

Just curious. The Westjet site show the following job description for a pilot, what exactly do they do over and above this??

Description:

•Assist the Pilot In Command in the management of the flight and manipulation of the aircraft controls in accordance with the direction of the Pilot In Command.

•Participate in the execution of flight deck, emergency, checklist, and instrument approach procedures as directed by the Pilot In Command, and in accordance with the procedures outlined in the Aircraft Flight Manual and Company approved procedures.

•Work with entire crew to ensure the safety and comfort of WestJet Guests.

•Other duties as outlined in the Company Operations Manual.

[Leading Edge]

You have an oppurtunity to prove me wrong, take it or leave it.

Why would we waste our time on you. Your comments reek of predjudice, and you seem ignorantly proud of it. I'd venture to say that quite a few professionals at your organzation are as embarrassed by your comments as you should be. Luckily for them, we are mature enough to recognize that your comments are an isolated case.

[Seeker]

I'm no pilot here at Westjet but if the % increase I hear is accurate I'd be ok with it. I flew jumpseat recently and I had the opportunity to speak with the two pilots about various issues. Most of what we spoke about came back to "it was mentioned at the last crew chat"... "it was brought up at the last crew chat".. "[Chief Pilot] said we'll be looking at that at our last crew chat".. etc. The increase in pay that our pilots are asking for are increases I feel these guys have earned. Not because they are flying our planes but because these guys genuinely try and make this company succeed outside of the cockpit. I doubt that any Air Canada pilot puts even half the amount of energy into doing the same thing Westjet pilots do outside of their "job description".

CanadaEh:

You are not a pilot. You don't really know what is involved in being a pilot or in what it takes to reach a career as a pilot at Westjet or at Air Canada. Even though you have had the opportunity to ride in the jumpseat you are not qualified to judge what is an acceptable pay increase. As for what those heroic Westjet pilots do outside of their job desciption, pray tell......are you thinking about cabin cleaning? Or maybe wheelchair pushing? What? You see to me these things appear to fall in the penny-wise, pound-foolish category. It looks good to a few pax here or there and makes the other "owners" feel all buddy buddy but does it really make sense to have the highest paid, highest skilled employees in an organization doing the joe jobs? No. Their time would be better spent preparing for the return flight, getting fed or even just having a quick relax to be sharper for the next flight. Now I know that you or some other owner(!) will rebutt with the we/they-only-do-it-when-everything-else-is-done. Yup, well, maybe it doesn't really have that much of an impact on the success then. In any case there is no way to judge what the net effect of pilot cabin cleaning is nor do you have any way of measuring how much an Air Canada pilot does for the company outside of his or her job description.

[CanadaEH]

You are not a pilot. You don't really know what is involved in being a pilot or in what it takes to reach a career as a pilot at Westjet or at Air Canada. Even though you have had the opportunity to ride in the jumpseat you are not qualified to judge what is an acceptable pay increase.

Fair enough.

As for what those heroic Westjet pilots do outside of their job desciption, pray tell......are you thinking about cabin cleaning? Or maybe wheelchair pushing? What? You see to me these things appear to fall in the penny-wise, pound-foolish category.

That wasn't what I was thinking about (see my PM for explaination).

I obviously hit a nerve so I'll retract my post and stop any further discussion.

[Seeker]

CanadaEh:

You didn't hit a nerve, I just saw your post as another in the Westjet Pilot Canonization series. I'll send you a PM.

seeker

[Guest rattler]

CanadaEh:

Nothing wrong with your post but I was def. curious re what extra duties Westjet Pilots pull over and above those outlined in their job description (as posted) which is quite different that the one posted for AC pilots on the AC site.

It would seem to me that both groups are abiding to their specific job descriptions as set by their employers.

Re your obvious pride in Westjet...... def. nothing wrong with that!

[Leading Edge]

Fair enough.

That wasn't what I was thinking about (see my PM for explaination).

I obviously hit a nerve so I'll retract my post and stop any further discussion.

Good idea.

[W5]

Back to the Delta dilemma:

(copied from Pprune)

Delta Judge Won't Recuse Herself

By EVAN PEREZ

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

November 17, 2005; Page A9

NEW YORK -- The federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Delta Air Lines rejected a request by the carrier's pilot union that she step down from the case because of comments suggesting that the pilots are paid too much.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Prudence Carter Beatty denied any antipathy toward Delta pilots, who are fighting efforts by the Atlanta-based airline to abandon the current pilot contract and slash their pay by 20%, or about $325 million a year.

Judge Beatty said union officials were misinterpreting remarks she made during hearings since Delta sought bankruptcy-court protection in September.

"I do not believe that I have a bias against the pilots," she said shortly after the start of a court hearing yesterday where Delta urged the judge to void the pilot contract. She didn't issue a ruling on that request.

The day after Delta's bankruptcy filing, Judge Beatty told Bruce Simon, a lawyer for the Air Line Pilots Association, the union representing Delta pilots, that the airline's pilot wages were "hideously high," according to a transcript of the hearing.

In another hearing last week, she said pilots were paid "an awful lot of money," adding that "the only good thing about them is they can't work after they're 60" years old, a reference to the mandatory retirement age for U.S. commercial airline pilots...