QOL items (rather a lack of improvements), retirement I’m not a fan of 3 options… I think we all need to be on the same plan, changes to scope and wet leasing I’m not a fan of as we (as a union) struggle to enforce our current contract, pay increase percentage and frequency, limited mediation sessions for discrepancies, vacation buy back increase to 100%, the verbiage used within the contract is loose and open to “interpretation “ in areas where I’d be happier if it were not open, recovery payment feels small and I would have rather had retro like other carriers instead of an arbitrary number.
It’s not all miserable but after having lived through covid here and been subjected to the company’s indifference, the company’s manipulation of the SAM to force us into 4a2b(c), the recent change in PBM that now effectively cut my pay 15k a year, as well as the optimization of trip efficiency being jacked way up combined with the endless revisions/extensions, and now very much lacking support with hotels and transportation on the road… god help you if you have to expense it and file an expense report (clue; there is a good chance it’s coming out of your paycheck), and we are still flying in close proximity to Iranian airspace and through Afghanistan’s airspace.
So yeah… all things considered it doesn’t feel like the pilot group “won” anything… at best a draw… which sucks when you factor in that back in 2018/2019 I looked forward to coming to work and now I can’t wait for a trip to end.
). We can't agree on most things as a pilot group, to think we are going to magically agree on one retirement plan is a pipe dream. What i do know is many of the guys that i enjoyed flying with have retired with no retirement gains. This TA solves that. I long for the days of a 50% income replacement pension as i do MD11s flying into Kai Tak. Neither are in the cards for me.