Originally Posted by
Carl Spackler
You and I have clearly had our back and forth in the past, but I hope you'll really listen to what I'm about to say:
I've been you alfa. I've been up to my eyeballs in data without having any time to interract with line pilots for a while. You can easily fall into a bunker mentality. That's where you and the rest of the MEC is right now. Not an insult, I just recognize it when I see it.
What you've stated in your entire post above (especially with what I've bolded) is that MEMRAT is really just a rubber stamp that's almost not worth the wasted time. I know you don't think that's what you've said, but you have. Here's why:
It does NOT matter if the NC has had 350 back and forths or 3,500. The NC and even the MEC are NOT the decision makers...the members are. It's not my opinion, it's the ALPA CBL's written language. O'Malley and all the reps have stated this over and over again. The decision makers have gotten this for the FIRST time. If we vote NO on this and send it back to the MEC, that will be the FIRST back and forth...not the 351st.
For you to state that we're kidding ourselves if we think management will move in any fashion to our NO vote, then why have MEMRAT? Do you not see by this statement that you're devaluing MEMRAT to the point of a membership rubber stamp of the MEC's actions? This is how a top-down organization behaves...not a bottom-up one?
Seriously alfa, you have to consider the damage of what you've just said here. Your position dictates that you revise these comments.
Carl
Well, Carl, thanks for "helping" me by making up a bunch of stuff I didn't say. Memrat is important, you have a vote, please exercise it. I only want people to vote based on data.
Buzzpat says we accepted their first offer. I simply corrected him by saying we had multiple offers. Not only did we have multiple offers but the issues narrowed down until we were fighting over small sums of money in relation to a $2.5 billion contract.
Now your opinion is that if we say no then management will open up the treasury and start pouring out money. Using your logic, we should do away with Memrat because Carl knows the answer and Carl's opinion rules.
My opinion is that if we say no, management will execute their business plan, a plan they have been moving on for months now. We will get pushed off into a corner and at some point we will negotiate again. Once they spend all that money on RJ maintenance they will keep those jets around. They also won't spend it on us.
We started prepping for this negotiation 18 months ago. We had numerous strategic planning sessions with the MEC, we put out an enormous amount of information to the pilots. We had a 100+ question survey that had 6,000+ responses. We carefully analyzed those results and worked with the MEC to refine their direction to meet the priorities of the pilots. We assembled a large negotiating team including four professional negotiators with over a hundred years combined negotiating experience. We had a trained economist, a brilliant guy, helping with costing and analysis. We went through expedited but comprehensive negotiations over a period of months, with thousands of hours of analysis and discussion in between proposals. In the end we were fighting over 1/5 % of our contract.
After going through this extensive process with professionals that are highly regarded throughout the country, my opinion is that if you vote no on the hope that there will be some rapid turnaround of a new contract with lots of extra benefits for us, you are mistaken. The scope language in this contract is a huge win for Delta pilots (in my opinion) and it was taken dearly with major heartburn from management. The chance that it will improve on the second go is quite low (in my opinion).
If your deal is the 76 seat issue then vote no, that is what memrat is for. I still don't understand what this issue is with Republic and Skyteam, I haven't yet heard one description of this that makes a lick of sense to me. Why would Delta try to make Frontier grow and prosper? They can't put any Delta passengers on Frontier or some C-Series jet whenever that paper airplane actually flies. They can't revenue share with them. But, hey if that is your issue, then vote no.
If you think a Delta 747 Captain making $85,000 a year more than a United 747 Captain is a personal affront, then vote no. Everyone can come up with a great reason to vote no.
The hard part is finding a path to vote no and then up with more scratch in your pocket. The negotiating committee worked their tails off and used an expanded team of professionals. They didn't just decide one day to quit negotiating and send out the results. This was a careful process that was carefully executed. If you vote no, then you better have a plan that gets us more money.
Hope is not a strategy. Wishing is not a strategy. Anger is not a strategy. You have a vote and you should exercise it. But if you vote no, I better end up with more money in my pocket in three years than this TA provides. Tell me how that happens and I will vote no too.