Originally Posted by
Scoop
Scope does not have to be for sale, it was already sold
and
So for all the guys who say Scope is not for sale - great I agree. Scope is my number 1 issue - but our Scope was already sold. Look at the percentages Bar posted above, look at the ALK flying out west, look at our Joint ventures, Codeshares, and who knows what Scope monstrosity our future might hold if we are not prudent this time around.
Just saying Scope is not for sale does not cut it - we need to improve our Scope - a Scope "purchase" if you will. I hope the negotiating team is doing this and I have no reason to believe otherwise.
The 50 seaters are going away. Good riddance, and lets not waste any capital on them, but we still have a ton of other Scope issues that need addressing. Our negotiating team cannot wave a magic wand and have us start over. So I am willing to look at Scope in its entirety. If we can tighten Scope in all the other areas by allowing more 70 seaters maybe we should consider it. I know, I cringe every time I type this, but we are already in the hole, and just saying scope is not for sale will not get us out.
Standing by for incoming.
Not sure it'll help, but that's how I look at it also. If you think about it, we've been leading up to this ever since the opener, when people felt "improve Scope" was too vague. Some will not vote for a contract where we don't improve
everything about Scope. I might vote for a contract that improves Scope in the aggregate, but it's going to take some very significant improvements overall, to purchase the right to get out of the 50-seat mess that the company's in.
IOW, we can negotiate some items within Section 1 relative to one another, as long as the end product is better, but if we trade all (or most) of Section 1 for W-2's, we're done.
Knowing when to say "no" is a lot more difficult than knowing when to say "yes".