This job has it all. It’s got the good, the bad, and the ugly. On these
\npages have been accounts of some of the good. This is the story of the bad
\nand the ugly.<\/p>\n
The line I bid this month started with a commercial (deadhead) to Frankfurt.
\nBased on everything I have experienced and assumed to be true, I was
\nexpecting to go to work on the 1st. As a result, I was both surprised and
\nunprepared for the news I received on the 30th from Scheduling. They
\ninformed me I had to leave the very next day (the 31st), a day before I was
\nexpecting. I would commercial to Atlanta, layover for an entire day, and
\nthen ride one of our airplanes over to Frankfurt. Naturally, that was
\ndesigned to save money (at my expense).<\/p>\n
Now, sometimes that might not be that big of a deal, but in this case it was.
\nI had packed so much work into my days off that I was truly unprepared to go
\nback to work. I wound up sleeping a whopping 30 minutes that night. <\/p>\n
As I was working through the scheduling issues, I explored the possibility
\nthat they may be scheduling me in violation of our working agreement. Now
\nbefore I get to the punchline, I should explain a couple of things.<\/p>\n
First of all, in the aviation world, we have a sort of standard way we handle
\ndisagreements about the ‘legality’ of flying assignments (or other
\nprocedures). If something clearly violates the Federal Aviation Regulations
\n(FAR’s), we simply refuse to do it. If something clearly violates the
\ncontract, we normally voice that and are not required to do it. However, on
\noccasion there is disagreement about how the contract applies. Under those
\ncircumstances, we may be ‘ordered’ to take the assignment. We’re told by our
\nUnion to take the assignment even though we disagree with it and if there
\nreally is a violation it can later be grieved (there’s a whole procedure with
\nthat, too). That’s what I did in this case.<\/p>\n
Secondly, our Union has created a bulliten board (a Yahoo group actually) for
\nthe use of our non-management pilots to discuss, well, pretty much anything
\nwe want. Management pilots are not allowed on the list supposedly to foster
\nmore open communication. I’ve learned in the past that management *does*
\nread those emails (at least sometimes).<\/p>\n
So as a result of beign told I had to leave a day early (even after I
\nobjected), I decided to write an email to the list exploring the legality of
\nmy somewhat unusual circumstances (the details are not terribly important
\nhere). Often, this results in a good variety of feedback from Union
\nRepresentatives as well as other line pilots. It also serves to educate all
\nof us as to how to apply the rules in various sitautions. I was careful to
\nwrite it ‘nicely’ and was honstly looking for information about whether or
\nnot there was a contract violation that took place and what I should do about
\nit.<\/p>\n
Within 24 hours, I had an email in my inbox from a particular management pilot
\n(essentially, one of my bosses) who was involved in the situation the
\nprevious evening. He was not particularly pleased with the fact that I had
\ndiscussed the issue on the ‘public’ forum of our email list (nevermind the
\nfact he’s not supposed to be on it at all). Among other things, he accused
\nme of poor judgement and made some other not-so-flattering remarks. There
\nwas definitely some sarcasm in there, too, but not the friendly kind.<\/p>\n
So not only have I lost a day off I was expecting (and still believe I was
\nentitled to), but I’ve irritated my boss by trying to find out if I was
\nreally entitled to that day or not. All this blah-ness while I head out on a
\n17-day trip that I’m not entirely thrilled about flying in the first place
\n(three round trips to the middle-east). <\/p>\n
Well, I guess it can’t all be perfect, can it???<\/p>\n
V-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This job has it all. It’s got the good, the bad, and the ugly. On these pages have been accounts of some of the good. This is the story of the bad and the ugly. The line I bid this month started with a commercial (deadhead) to Frankfurt. Based on \u2026 Continue reading