Originally Posted by
galaxy flyer
Gloopy
That is just a self-serving rationalization to work with management to put your competition, and incidentally your union brothers, out of business. I was on the EAL BOS strike committee and I don't remember anyone there asking Delta's pilots to work extra to put us out of business and work. How'd you like JB adding sections if you go out? Perhaps, UAL could add extra sections out of Atlanta.
If your theory held water, SW coming into ATL should help your upcoming negotiations.
GF
Well when DL was effected by the Comair strike, the Comair strike committee and ALPA defined struck work as additional frequency and/or gauge within the Delta system. Competing airlines were encouraged to hub raid CVG (and anywhere else in the DL system) with as much additional capacity as they wanted to, provided it wasn't affiliated with DL.
The point of a strike is to bleed your airline/holding company out to force the issues at hand. Its not to punish the traveling public just for the sake of itself. If one airline can't manage their labor relations, let the pax go to one that does.
And yes, SWA in ATL is, by far, the single biggest and best thing that could have happened to the DL pilot group by another company. Our biggest domestic competitor in our biggest and most crucial hub is about to see its costs absolutely soar, and we were competing VERY well against them before anyway. As negotations near, nothing is better than SWA in ATL to help us make the case to the NMB that SWA plus reasonable premiums in all areas is fair, reasonable and profitable as long as management does their part in running an airline and winning customers (as opposed to flailing around in some MBA fantasy land global outsource frenzy virtual airline portfolio travel agency nonsense).