This is MEC Communications Committee Chairman Chris Renkel on Thursday,
September 2, with five items. Please note the MEC office will close at 3:00
p.m. on Friday, September 3, and remain closed through Monday, September 6,
for Labor Day.
Item one. "Work group" meetings continued this week between your
Negotiating Committee and management to discuss technical aspects of
scheduling and work rule concessions. We expect these meetings to continue
next week. While we are making some progress in these areas, rumors of
"round-the-clock" talks and an "imminent" tentative agreement are unfounded.
Your union needs your help in not perpetuating this type of crew room
gossip. As always, please check this hotline or the MEC website for the
most timely and accurate information.
Item two. Pension issues are receiving much media attention recently,
especially in the airline industry. For information on your union's efforts
to protect pilots' pension plans, log onto the deltapilots.org website under
"special interest items" for a message from ALPA President Capt. Duane
Woerth.
Item three. This week, ALPA's economic experts were in Atlanta to receive
updated financial information from Delta. Your union continues to closely
monitor Delta's financial condition and will provide you with updates as
necessary.
Item four. Pilots should look for an email from the MEC Scheduling
Committee concerning an error in "When Scheduling Calls, Vol. II." This
error pertains to the required schedule check for a reserve pilot on his
last non-fly day prior to an on-call day.
To be clear, a pilot who has accumulated six short call credits in a bid
period is still required to check his schedule between 1500 on his last
non-fly day and 0900 on his first on-call day. This is so the pilot can
acknowledge flying that has been placed on his line no later than three
hours prior to report. This is true even though he may not be assigned any
flying that reports prior to 1200 on his first on-call day. If Crew
Scheduling has placed no flying on his line prior to 1500, he simply becomes
a long call pilot at 0001.
Item five. Atlanta Council 44 will meet on Tuesday, September 7, at 1:00
p.m. at the Renaissance Airport Hotel. MEC Chairman Capt. John Malone will
be a guest speaker. LAX Council 16 meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. on
Thursday, September 30th at the Proud Bird Restaurant.
That's it for this week. Thanks for calling.
