Union Or Not

[FREDDIE]

Hold up there BR I never said a employer should supply Life insurance. When you get a association together you look for a group rate normally a lot more affordable than a single rate for a high risk job. I pay for my own insurance if I am working for a company I still maintain my policy because good ones are hard to come by.

[Guest Bullet Remington]

Hold up there BR I never said a employer should supply Life insurance. When you get a association together you look for a group rate normally a lot more affordable than a single rate for a high risk job. I pay for my own insurance if I am working for a company I still maintain my policy because good ones are hard to come by.

 

 

Ok point taken. And unfortunately, I still don't see the cost being a concern. As a contractor it was a cost of doing business and a tax write-off, which more then compensated for the cost. Which totaled $2,800.00 annually. Keerist, I pay $700.00 for PLPD on my personal vehicle and I'm over 50 and never had an accident much less a claim. So from my perspective, anything under $3000.00 a year to ensure the Missus and the fruit of my loins are looked after is dirt cheap. But, that's just me.

 

If it's a concern to you, by all means persue it! As an side, just how may drivers consider life insurance an issue anyway?? Anybody have any numbers? Just curious, in that I wasn't aware that this was an issue??

 

Thanks for your perspective Freddie. I appreciate your response!

 

BR

[pilot5]

Good point Bullet Remington makes about the pilots being legislated up the ying yan! So where does it state in the regs that an engineer gets a duty day! I know many engineers that are outrightly abused by thier employers and work long, long hours under totally shite conditions. Would it be a far fetch to suggest that a tired and fatigued engineer is just as much of a risk to safety as a pilot. I would think that forgetting a cotter pin or lockwire or torque setting due to fatigue would be just as dangerous!

 

Could be totally off the mark here, if any body could point out if the regulation exists it would be appreciated. Any input on this form and engineers perspective would also be good to!

 

P5

[Guest Bullet Remington]

Good point Bullet Remington makes about the pilots being legislated up the ying yan! So where does it state in the regs that an engineer gets a duty day! I know many engineers that are outrightly abused by thier employers and work long, long hours under totally shite conditions. Would it be a far fetch to suggest that a tired and fatigued engineer is just as much of a risk to safety as a pilot. I would think that forgetting a cotter pin or lockwire or torque setting due to fatigue would be just as dangerous!

 

Could be totally off the mark here, if any body could point out if the regulation exists it would be appreciated. Any input on this form and engineers perspective would also be good to!

 

P5

 

 

P5:

 

There are NO limitation on the number of hours an engineer can work ANYWHERE! Nor will Transport establish a baseline for engineers. They are washing their hands of pretty well all responsibility for any decision making and this issue as well as others are being policed by the industry via the new SMS system that a bunch of people feel is the cat's arse!

 

A fatigued, tired and sleepy engineer is a greater threat to aviation saftey then a tired driver. USUALLY, a driver will stop and go to bed. IF an engineer does this he/she is reamed a new arsehole! The engineer repairs everything! The truck/s, the refueling pumps, the generators, those silly little Honda engines, and everything else that's required to get through a contract. So even if he/she isn't working on the machine, they still have a ton of work to do to get the job done.

 

TCCA commisioned a study some time ago on Engineers fatigue /tireness. The ironic thing is, Rotary engineers were more rested the plank engineers, simply because thy did work alone and could crawl into the truck and snooze! That tells me just how pathetic this business is!!

[Guest Bullet Remington]

16 days and no one peep about a union (thankfully) nor an association. Anybody else believe that this isuue has been bantered to crap and should be put to death??

[Elvis]

I don't think it will ever die, maybe it's on vacation

 

[MMike]

Unions are bad, mmmmkay?

 

[RTR]

Nay I say

 

RTR

[Grasshopper]

This entire thread suggests that there's not really much new to be heard on this perennial subject, but some of the best thinking persists. Methinks the reasons a pilot and/or engineer union is continually a 'non-starter' are clearly indicated in several of the informed opinions expressed.

 

Regarding the engineer's duty time issue, though, I think the entire industry recognizes that there are no more tireless workers to be found, anywhere. However, I'm not so sure the huge amount of hours our engineers put in are as much the result of management or ownership pressure as they are that of the extraordinary professionalism and dedication to their craft. The bosses, on the other hand, may have come to rely on those realities and, yes, maybe even to exploit them to some degree, inadvertently or otherwise.

 

I'd been flying for about six years before I was exposed to one of the more shining examples of such an outstanding craftsman and, from that day forward, I've had nothing but respect for our 'wrenches' and what sometimes seems to be their thankless job. By the way, he, and some of the very best engineers I've met over the years, were proud to be called 'mechanics,' regardless of what those lacking self-confidence and self-esteem in their field seem to think.

 

Here's my small toast to guys like Don Sadler, Art Johnson, Dave McLean, Emile Lupien, Jack Pearson, Al Partridge, Rick McDonald and the many, many like them.

 

Having wandered far from my original point, I'll come back in closing to say that, just as our marketplace has imposed safety standards and work practices regarding safety in the broad sense, you won't have to hold your breath for long waiting to see some sensible restrictions imposed on engineers duty time and time off requirements. It's overdue, God knows, but it WILL come.

[dimit]

Let's start a letter writing campaign right here and now to get some duty day limits for engineers! Anyone know who we should be writing to? If we get on this and involve the other online forums in Canada and get everyone online to involve their colleagues, we could get enough momentum to push a change!!

 

Dick