Because the MEC chose to send us back to work BEFORE the TA was ratified, then they (MEC, ALPA lawyers, Negotiating Committee) put on road shows in which they said "if we turn this TA down, we will be in no mans land"

When faced with the possibility of being put out of work for a loonnnnnggggggg time, the pilots chose to take the deal that the entire SPA ALPA apparatus supported strongly. IOW, the pilots never expected to strike and when we managed to get back with minimal losses, 74% were not willing to take the chance again. I assure you that the ratification vote was NOT about the quality of the deal, it was about having a job vs not having a job.

That's the rank and file perspective. We'll have to wait until one of the SPA ALPA apologize-rs signs on for their perspective.

BTW, they will tell you that they did raise the bar, and when you consider that we got $185 a hour for senior Captains at year four or five of the deal, we did get parity in hourly pay. IF you only consider hourly pay, they did at least get us up to the bar. I prefer to judge my contract by my year end W-2 and how many days off I had during that year. By that measure, I'll be about even after year two of the new contract.