Great post Albie. Not sure if I agree with the basic decision possibilities.

To me, unity comes to this group when people are generally angry enough about similar things to influence their decisions. Similar fashion to how the country, political divided as it was, was unified after 9/11. I'd like to think the crew force here was unified to a point after 4a2b (no, I'm not comparing it to 9/11). You've got to get angry to get unified - it's not going to come from endless pleas from the MEC or people wearing their lanyard - it's not going to come that way because it never has come that way. Anger has to be harnessed at the appropriate time by the leadership. I'd say right now most guys here are pretty happy. It seems to take about 2 years of fruitless negotiations for guys to get angry enough to get unified and make a difference.

Does anyone here really think we're going to get relief from the NMB....ever? We work for one of the most politically connected companies in the country in a extremely politically charged environment. When was the last time the NMB gave anyone relief? It's going to be anger...leading to unity...leading to guys not flying DPs/draft/extra during peak. We just went through a peak - no chance to really use that anger for another year.

We can keep taking 3% pay raises with no changes in contract and I suspect the company will be happy. What if the Company offered a 3% pay raise every year (which about matches historical inflation but will more than likely be less than future inflation), keep our same inflation-adjusted pay - would everyone take it and not worry about the rest of the contract? I for one think we did get some improvements in 2006 that exceed a 3% annual pay raise. I still want some more improvements outside of increases in book rates.

I don't think the world wide economy is going to show a significant improvement for quite some time - we'll probably be in a similar situation a year from now, maybe even two years from now.

This idea that entering negotiations now is the same as entering it next year because the economy's not doing well, Fedex has to wait for 2012 elections, etc. etc is just inaccurate. Unity is built in negotiations - not the kind that the NC is currently doing. And by the way, anything they are doing now will not decrease future negotiations at all - they are nibbling around the edges, have been for well over a year, with nothing to show. Maybe that's typical but don't tell me how much "progress" is being made.

We have to decide when we're ready to demand some changes to the contract - it's going to take a while regardless of the economy, politics, retirements, etc. Start now or start next year, or the year after or whatever.

Just answer me this - if the Company offered you a perpetual 3% annual pay raise each March to stay out of Section 6 and continue with these ad-hoc negotiations would you take it?