In my opinion, the moment that retro pay becomes anything other than retro is the moment we allow the company to trump us again. If you're tired of waiting this long for a contract, just wait until the next one. They'll drag it out over a decade and find a way to gin up another TRO to keep us on a tight leash. We've been subsidizing UAL since 2002 and we'd be setting ourselves up to do it again. NO MORE.

There is no way I'll vote yes for an ALPA distributed signing bonus.

(OK, I lied. There is a way but it would involve the distribution of a monumental pile of cash by girls in Hot Pants. Once the pay rates are on paper, everyone ought to be able to quickly figure out what they've been shorted since the amendable date. Add a kicker for COLA and B/C contributions and that's what it would take. But, one would have to be smoking crack to think we'd ever see that!)

There's only way I'll vote yes for this TA. It's got to have:

1) Ironclad Scope
2) Retroactive pay.
3) Highly competitive work rules
4) Highly competitive compensation.

Call it keyboard bravado, call it fertilizer I don't care. Absent the above its NO.

I fully expect to get screwed in the SLI. But I won't vote for a double helix.

Sorry for the TD. This week, next week, I'm willing to send it back and wait.