I enjoy your thoughts most of the time Clamp, but it is disappointing when comments are based on truthiness and not fact.

Can you show me where "we gave up improvements"? Were you at the table? How can you be confident that anything was left on the table?

The biggest difference I saw (and learned) from the early Contract talks were that the Union had surveyed the pilots, were prepared with the items and areas of emphasis that the pilots wanted. The NC and the MEC were on the same page, and the union was completely prepared for negotiations.

The other big factor in an "early" deal was that the Company sent people with the authority to actually make yes and no decisions. Essentially both parties "skipped" the first 14-19 months and jumped right to the end game. None of the middle management minions who can't say yes to anything and end up taking every offer "back to the manager". There were VP level leaders at the table from Day 1, the people who had the real authority to say "yes" to proposals.

Take some time and get in touch with some (at least one) of the NC members, it is really eye opening to see how things actually got done...

Not sure it was "rushed", looking at it from another perspective it was more along the lines of "we know what we want, you know what you want, let's cut the cr@p and do this" so we can both get back to work focusing on operating the airline.