Thank you all for your attention to the bid process, we’re trucking right along. We will finish whatever round your area is on this week and then start the next round without pay period three so the schedulers can publish that.
While we’re on the subject of bidding and MOUs, I would like to take this opportunity to share a little bit of what the negotiations were stuck on. Every year, we bid as early as possible because we know how much our lives revolve around it and how helpful it is to pre-plan. The impact of the delay was not lost on us, so we thought it was important to share some of the details.
Flex times were a huge point of contention. There was a big push to eliminate our current flex of 30 minutes. A “concession” they were trying to wager was to agree to keep the flex time but to add the ability for them to choose any shift they wanted to be designated as a “no flex.” These changes would have taken our little bit of flexibility and predictability and tossed it out with the trash.
It’s no secret that they were also coming for our daily guide numbers. We have data showing that ZSE’s traffic count has been climbing, and we are nearly at 2019 levels. Even the projected numbers for 2024 from some airlines show an increase from this year. Our focus is always on protecting the bargaining unit employees. They tend to focus on defending the business case. They will focus on how much overtime is being paid out and try to solve this by reducing the number of people required to be on shift. We must remind them that staffing is based on workload, and staffing numbers should not be changed unless that is going down.
Throughout the years, every area has taken a turn being the short-staffed area. One thing that has remained the same is that we’ve stuck together and shown as much unity as possible in the face of adversity. One goal they had this year was to separate the annual leave agreement so that each area would have different amounts of leave opportunities throughout the year. Basically, one area would have three slots in the summer while another would only have one, effectively kicking certain areas in the shin even more. Selling one area out to preserve other areas purely in the name of some supposed overtime budget would do nothing more than stoke the flames of division.
All this is not meant to sow discontent, only to ensure an informed workforce. You all deserve to know why bidding started so much later than usual. Additionally, this is not an all-inclusive list, just a few examples.
Amy