Originally Posted by
Carl Spackler
Our NO votes are the single most important thing for us to all remember when it gets to crunch time about 18 months from now. It will be important, but extremely difficult for those who've never been through a Section 6 process before. At crunch time, our union reps will come out with scare tactics like you and your wives have never seen before. They will talk of things like "A NO vote will ruin everything", and "A NO vote will mean the end of the MEC and negotiating committee and we'll have to start over from ground zero after the new elections", and "A NO vote will show such division in our pilot group that management's next offer will be FAR WORSE than this one", etc., etc...
This will of course all be complete BS, but it WILL happen. When it does, be ready...and vote NO.
Carl
Carl is correct. The simple truth is that if we are not willing to risk anything - we will probably not gain much. A few month ago I flew with a Captain who said C2000 rates were his minimum. I asked him if he would be willing to strike over it. He said no. I said Hmmmmm????
When guys ask me what number I would like to see I say I don't have a number. I will not make a decision until I see the "whole package." A 50% pay-raise does me little good if we cave on Scope. Conversely a smaller raise with tight scope, better vacation and training minimums, higher 401K, 75 hour reserve minimum etc could be much more attractive.
The devil is in the details. We fell for the "Big $$$" on C2000 and gave up a ton of Scope. The $$$$ soon disappeared but our Scope failure (my opinion) unfortunately, is still around. Pay-rates are very important, probably the most important single issue, but the contract must be look at in total.
Scoop