Originally Posted by Carl Spackler

That's a great question, and here's the answer. If negotiations are on track to meet the MEC's direction, then there isn't necessarily a need to brief the MEC...althought it's always done anyway from my experience. But in THIS case, it was very clear to the negotiators that management was playing hardball and would not meet the directives of the MEC. At THAT point, it was incumbent upon the NC to ask for a meeting of the full MEC to discuss what should be done. Our DTW LEC chairman said quite clearly that was NOT done. The NC just shook hands on the TA, leaviing the heavy lifting to the full MEC after the handshake. It was an amateurish mistake...unless the MEC chairman knew it all along and WANTED to put the LEC members in a no-win situation.

Mr. O'Malley has some very hard questions to answer about how this process was handled. It's HIS administration. The buck stops with him. IMO, it was classic Lee Moak behavior and an epic fail on his part.

Carl