Why is the company able to raise the floor to 85 on a monthly basis virtually penalty free? Some guys want to fly, others don't. I don't want to fly my arse off, and I figure for every month they raise the floor, it costs me about 2.5 days off...meaning I'm up to about 12.5 days that the company has cost me lately. Why aren't they forced to pay out double pay for hours 75-85? Why not leave it in open time for those who want to go nuts with it? Why not actually USE reserves?
A couple of points here. First, when the floor was first raised, it was raised without penalty, and the pilot group would get nothing. While numerous options were proposed (including the questions you asked) and were viewed as more favorable. The other reality is the CBA language on this topic was weak, as the company could award one line at 75 hours, and then force bidder 2 and on to be subjected to a 90 hour line.
Second, raising the floor does not necessarily cost you 2.5 days off. It has to do with the avg credit per duty period averaged over the entire base, which based on stage length, is traditionally closer to 5.5 hours.
Third, Based on your seniority, since I am guessing you are not the number 1 bidder in base, without a raised floor, you would have been flying 90:00 or more, which would have led to more days off lost than allowing the floor to be raised. Having a 85:00 floor allows pilots to have a chance at not flying an 90-95 hour line, and while I agree it is not optimal, puts value into the CBA by adding premium pickup language.
What is up with "min. Required line value"???
There is a pretty detailed explanation of Required Minimum Line Value in the PBS Guide. It is a concept that all PBS systems deal with to address when a pilot/trip imbalance exists. While you often see the system impose a minimum required value, it can also impose a max value to ensure that the system awards all pilots flying.
It's my understanding that PBS is utilized a little differently at each airline at which it is used. My humble opinion is that there are some things at Compass that cause it to have some sucky aspects. So there, instead of PBS sucks, I'm asking, what's up with these less than stellar aspects of it? Did our previous reps throw us under the bus? Is the company not adhering to the contract? Are things perfect and I'm just wrong? Is flying at a regional supposed to hurt a little and this is one of those things?
How a PBS system functions is all about contract language. How much credit we are given for different things such as Vacation/leave and what the value of the pairings are matter a great deal. A carrier that has parity in their pairings (roughly equal credit) will have a drastically different result than a carrier that has a wide variety of pairings that have a wide spread of credit values. Saying previous Reps threw us under the bus is a bit harsh and uncalled for imo. They did the best they could with what they had to work with, which at times is almost nothing. They still try.
Things are not perfect, but things are as good as they can be with what we have to work with. This doesn't mean that any of the committees or the MEC have stopped working or trying to improve issues that are known to be of concern with the pilot group, but a lot of these issues can't be resolved overnight.
Lastly, I'm going to assume that manpower is not even a remote issue and that our union is fully staffed and not in need of help in any shape or form...since I've emailed multiple times offering to volunteer in any capacity...messages that have gone unanswered for multiple months now.
Manpower is a huge issue, and has been for a long time. I appreciate you reaching out to volunteer. The reality is people are sending emails to volunteer, and one of several things happen. 1) The email gets buried in an email box. 2) The person gets set up to start training, and doesn't complete it or runs into an issue and doesn't reach out to get help. 3) Person gets set up, gets placed on a committee and then contributes very little. 4) Email states that person is not willing to do any work on their day off. ALPA work 95% of the time is volunteer work. Some work on a day off will be required.
I am not saying you in particular would do/say any of these things. Also the system for collecting volunteers in the past was not as well organized as it could be. One of the great new parts of the website is forms that help standardize the information that is received by the MEC. There is a whole new volunteering page, with a form to help with what you are interested in that goes to a number of people instead of just 1 or 2 to ensure you get a response.
Don't be afraid to follow up. Things happen and while it might be someones intention to get back to you, no one is getting ignored on purpose. Ask whats up or if there is a project you can jump in on.
Again the pilot group appreciates you reaching out and being willing to volunteer, please try it again through the form.
