Guest Starman Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 When a union signs a contract with an employer, it essentially "signs onto" the business plan mapped out by management for the life of the contract. R Milton says that his current business plan is "broken" and that therefore we must reduce the cost of labour on a permanent basis. Over the next few weeks, we will have to consider what parts of our contracts we are willing to clip in order to reduce those labour costs. Before we "sign on" to the new business plan, however, I think that we should all assess the new plan from the "big picture" perspective to ensure that it will address the issues facing this company which threaten its viability. Management must become more streamlined and more effective. (ie. all employee groups, including management, must become more productive per seat mile) A "best industry practices" approach must be adopted as opposed to the "that's the way we've always done it" approach. The "bleeding of the industry" by all levels of government and airport authorities must be reduced. Alleviation of some of our debt burden must be achieved. Air Canada is a member of the Star Alliance and has within the alliance, industry average benchmarks for productivity for every group in the company. If management does not have that info, they aren't doing their job; if they do, it's time to use the information... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dick Dastardly Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Check pilots bid a schedule and line checks are scheduled rather than displacing. Simulator is filled by reserve pilots. Simulator is scheduled rather than being done on days off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dick Dastardly Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Check pilots bid a schedule and line checks are scheduled rather than displacing. Simulator is filled by reserve pilots. Simulator is scheduled rather than being done on days off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fleet80 Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 As a condition to ACPA signing LOU 52, the company is NOT allowed to bid blocks for line checks. (Don't remember if this applies to line indoc as well but I think it does), but this has been in the collective agreement for years. For years the RJ, DC9 and 320 management bid blocks with a rotating seniority number, so that flying could be preselected for these checks, both left and right seats, significantly reducing the amount of displacement on these fleets. For years the company has also tried to introduce "bid" simulator schedules in contract negotes, but the price for this "let" exacted by ACPA was deemed too expensive, and so has not been implemented. (ACPA wanted the simulator to be included in the monthly max flying allowed, ie no longer considered as just being paid for working on days off). If you think these are important concessionary items, let your ACPA reps know.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Starman Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 These are the kinds of concessions we should be making. The closer we can get the average pilot to actually operating 900 block hours per year (minus vacation), the better off we will all be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homerun Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Scheduling sims as part of your block reduces pilot productivity. You spend those credit hours in the sim instead of in the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dick Dastardly Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Perhaps, but it offsets the potential reduction in pilots required when check pilots bid blocks. Furthermore, I think your comment is not easily quantifiable as it makes certain assumptions about reserve coverage and availability of other pilots. In simple terms, sim. is work and should be treated as such, not done on days off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tango Niner Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 "Check pilots bid a schedule" "line checks are scheduled rather than displacing." "Simulator is filled by reserve pilots." "Simulator is scheduled rather than being done on days off." FYI at WestJet we do ALL of this. (Except the reserve thing - we don't HAVE reserve.) So it can be done. You can change the model if you really want to. Don't keep staring at the contract and saying "it says we can't". That's the road to oblivion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maranatha Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Good string with good ideas! Gotta lose some of those high priced suits [and golf shirts on Fridays] we see around flt ops. Has anyone done a study of supervisor pay vs. productivity? C'mon Inchman, that should be a snap for you. 900 block hours per year? Do you mean hard time? That's 75 hrs per month and that's a non-starter. Should be at least 80 hrs per month if we're gonna follow the WJ model, probably more like 85. OOps! I've let slip the dogs of heresy! Cheers all! IE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lupin Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 why not make the pilots fly the max allowable by transport Canada??Shurely thats a safe number of hours .... imagine the savings to the company!! everyone else works a normal week...why not the pilots?? lupin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WA777 Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Transport Canada (CAR) Maximums mean "On Duty" times close to 300 hours per month....since when is that normal...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Starman Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 900 block hours per year can easily mean 250 work hours per month... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tri-spool Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 I agree, this number is absolutely ridiculous. That's 10 hours/day all month long, no days off period. Even joe average gets 2 days off/week, and sees his/her family every day, at the end of the day. Lets get serious, if you worked those kind of ours, flight safety would be out the door! Ever heard the expression "Fatigue Kills", and in the airline industry that means kills a lot of people. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homerun Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 I agree it is work. However, right now it is done on days off as a form of overtime. By getting credit for sims as part of your block, you are lowering your stick time, decreasing productivity. We need to get the stick time up, not down. I agree, get the check pilots flying blocks, however this requires a change to the contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dick Dastardly Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 Ok....something else we should be doing is two sector line checks as required by CARS, not a three day LAX pairing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dick Dastardly Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 Ok....something else we should be doing is two sector line checks as required by CARS, not a three day LAX pairing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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