Lessee, our MC said exactly what the "J"NC said... J as in joint, you might call Phil Otis to clarify his message 'cause your MC is the only one dancing to a different tune. That is the problem, not what he said.
Again, nowhere did I say anything about being happy with the process. I agree with everything you say regarding the lack of tangible results.
I am not the only one concerned with the conflicting communications, here are 2 sUA guy's thoughts from another forum that echo my own:
"I must have been at a different council meeting this week. Was not one of the reasons to deny the LEC officers access to the contract proposals being passed back and forth was because the negotiating committee was making great progress the past three weeks and Jay did not want the committee to be distracted?"
From the MEC Update dated March 16:
Joint Negotiating Committee Update
This week, your JNC continued to meet with management in Baltimore under the supervision of the NMB mediator. Negotiations centered on the JCBA scheduling sections (Sections 5, 20 and 22). Using the mediator’s suggested small group format for these negotiation sessions has generated more progress than we have seen in the past. Progress continues to be made in reducing the number of open scheduling items. While our stated goal during the last three weeks in Baltimore was to close all of the issues remaining in scheduling prior to our departure, we have a number of topics that must be addressed.
Given the fact that our progress has been significant, the JNC and management will continue this process when we resume negotiations in Chicago the week of March 26 in an effort to close the remaining issues. Additionally, when discussing the interaction of sick leave with scheduling issues, we were able to solve the remaining open issues in Section 13 – Sick Leave and have now achieved an agreement in principle (AIP) on this section.
And
"I don't get it, did Heppner just sort of wake up Saturday morning and decide to pen a letter to 7000 pilots? J*****, as you rightly point out the obvious disconnect between communications COMING FROM THE SAME SOURCE! *** is going on here? Is any body minding the communications store? Do the MC and his Comm guy even talk to each other? Don't they see how schizophrenic their communications look to the line pilot?"
Nowhere is anybody (me included) complaining about the content of Heppner's missive as a stand alone issue, but rather the confusing and conflicting messages emanating from both the and the JNC over a brief period of time.
Everything else you wrote about the actual process is spot on, and is what every guy at Cal I talk to is feeling.
We just need our leaders to start moving us all in the right direction.