Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
Also as an aside, it behooves the company to make sure that we have an agreement prior to the November elections. If the incumbent wins a second term labor get a bigger ear. (In a second term that is)
Totally agree, and I'm surprised this potential leverage hasn't been discussed more on APC. Guys are focusing on leverage we may have due to merger activity, aircraft purchases, etc. In my opinion, this set of circumstances may be perceived by management as much more of a threat to their control of pilot costs than the above mentioned factors. I'd be very curious to hear what, if any, opinions with respect to this matter are held by the members of our negotiating committee. Airline management and Delta and UCAL may be looking to button up a 4 year agreement in spring to summer '12 in order to delay entering into NMB supervised mediation until after the '16 elections when we'll be more likely to have a management friendly executive branch.
The blanket party airline pilots were subjected to at the hands of management under Bush after 9-11 got less severe as Obama took office (as demonstrated by Obama's PBGC guy pushing back on AMR trying to dump their pensions), but no first term president is going to really let his policy engine fire on all cylinders until his second term.
I'd be surprised to see any airline want to have to deal with the NMB in the first bit of Obama's second term. I wonder if ALPA national (or A4A) have gained any insight to the planned approach of the NMB after November.
Management at UCAL have been dragging their feet... it's going to be interesting to see how they progress as the presidential campaign gets into full swing.
Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
This will allow them to gain access to the financing they need going forward as well as know that we will be under an agreement for any transactions over that period.
I agree with ACL that current iteration of the US/AMR deal being discussed in the news is not what we will see as an end result.
Bankruptcy reveals who really owns and controls something. In the case of airlines, it is the creditors.
There are other factors that will come into play, but ultimately a bank wants to maximize the amount of debt outstanding, the interest rate on the debt, and the level of reliability with which the debt is serviced. Delta has demonstrated much more capacity to generate revenue (and to service debt) than US. I doubt Richard is gonna sit on his ands and watch the transfer of assets which he certainly covets without at a minimum making sure that they are dearly paid for.