Originally Posted by
Whidbey
I get the feeling that is what our union is preparing us for. The company will certainly argue that the passage of time (and the JCBA) constitute a tacit acceptance of that position on our part. Accepting marginal pay and work rule improvements "over the life of a contract" will certainly reset the baseline.
I understand and agree with the ALPA stance on not publicizing our survey results and not publicizing our negotiating priorities. I can even live with not knowing what the opener is.
However, after the last two road shows I went to where I heard TO and other union guys be very critical of the APA, I get the feeling that they are of the opinion that aiming lower to get something now is better than negotiating for an extended period of time for (larger) gains they don't feel are achievable.
We've seen those get what you can now quotes here:
We have tried the huge opener at Delta. In the end we got a lower rate then could have been achieved with a more reasonable opener and lost half the 16 aircraft on order.
The problem with a huge opener is what do you do when the company says the following on 1 Apr.
Company:Thank you for your opener. We will get back to you with a response in June.
DALPA: June? That is not acceptable. Its almost 2 months away. We want to talk sooner.
Company: You must have misunderstood us. We meant June of 2014!
Goodbye.
There are two things in a contract negotiation that have to always be considered. What you want and what is achievable. The two are almost never the same. The majority of pilots are rational enough to understand that concept. The rest will simply always be unhappy and looking for someone or something to blame.
The problem with this argument of take something now whether than fight it out to later, APA style, is that it requires perfect knowledge of what could have happened later and more importantly, what is happening right now.
So if I negotiate for a car and the sticker is $18,500. What is attainable is paying, $18,500. If I fought it out and played the game right and leverage myself I might walk out with $16,000. Dealer may be laughing because he paid $10K for the car. Or he may have paid $16K and just wanted it off the lot.
How do you know? You don't, but you sure won't win if you start at $19,500.