Originally Posted by sailingfun

Lets hope the contract negotiations continue to go well. The company is giving up considerable leverage on this issue. "Dalpa, Your contract proposal is terrible and we are done talking and request mediation. Company, No problem we will see you in mediation however we should mention we are picking up some 717's as a bridge aircraft. We are only going to operate them for 3 or 4 years but will also bring a 1000 more pilots to Delta so we don't have to do any training. Get your arbitration lawyers back on retainer! Let us know when the SLI list is done."

Originally Posted by sailingfun

I post it because many on here seem to have a limited understanding of contract negotiations and how they progress under the NMB and RLA.
The first rule of negotiations that everyone needs to understand is that its all about leverage. Who has it and who does not. The 1113 process is the apex of leverage for management. A NMB release is the peak of leverage for labor. After that there are many levels and ways to gain leverage or lose it.
Contract negotiations can very quickly go south and turn from a cooperative venture to all out war. There have been many posts on here and the DALPA forum that suggest that as a union we should be in all out war with the company at all times. I simply don't think that is a smart strategy. At the moment we enjoy a pretty good working relationship with the company. That has allowed many things to be accomplished. In fact the mid contract changes and additional source of money to pilots have been almost unheard of in the airline industry. It also assures that we don't have to worry about 1000 airtran pilots showing up next week.
I am cautiously hopeful at this point because the company has not chosen to use or attempt to use some very obvious tools for leverage they have had at their disposal. Lets hope it stays that way.