The Saga Continues

Yesterday John received an email from the Pilot Union saying that they had met with AirTran last week about the possible furloughs. It was a long email that basically talked in circles, but from what John and I read, it all comes down to this...

The union and the company have been in contract negotiations for quite some time now, and since the company now has this furlough card to play, they are using it to their advantage. In their current contract, it states that if there ever needs to be furloughs, the company has to terminate the 14 retired pilots who currently work in the training department. The company has been trying to get the union to agree to look past this part of the contract and allow them to keep the 14 retired guys and furlough 180 pilots. Confused??? Yeah - we are, too!! How much sense does it make to lose 180 guys for 14???? Let me try to explain...

If they get rid of the 14 retired guys, then they have to pull in 14 current pilots to take their places. They also have to spend the money to train them to work in the training department PLUS they have to continue to pay them their current salary (as opposed to the meager salary they are paying the 14 retired guys) and upgrade 14 other pilots to fill the spaces left by the pilots who were sent to the training center....so...

The union really only cares about getting a good contract and the company only cares about managing their money, so they are both using the pilots to get what they want. Now they are talking about FIRING all of the probationary pilots (yes, this includes John) so this whole thing can go down in so many different ways - none of which sound particularly appealing.

Right now, John is applying to a few aviation jobs that would allow us to stay in GA and keep the house we are building. If none of those work out, then we are considering moving back to South Florida where he has been offered a job at his former airline. Please pray for us to have wisdom beyond our years, peace that is overwhelming, and faith that God has a fantastic plan for our lives. We trust Him and know that He is going to do more than we could ever dream!!!