Well, sadly all of these issues are not really able to be addressed by our union unless we enter into contract negotiations. Many people were concerned about these issues when the TA was signed, and 38 percent thought that not enough had been done. But we agreed to it. And we got our raises and are getting our 717's. Maybe we would have gotten those anyway, who knows. The point is, until we are really going to get behind the union and force these issues to be dealt with at the negotiating table, we will continue to sell ourselves out.

I'll make a prediction. That when the contract becomes amendable in 2015, there will magically appear some new "issues"... new widebody order, economic collapse, whatever. We will be asked to trade whatever the company wants, work rules, more code share, scope... in order to get a small raise and some shiny new airplane. Our union will react with fear in their hearts and put the word out to us that unless we give the company exactly what the company wants, we might as well just go to Truckmasters. Oh but we should have seen the earlier proposal... it was so much worse! This one is much better... just sign here. The new contract will pass 60-40. In the end, it will hurt us because what we'll trade will not be worth the quid and we'll be back on here wondering how we got where we are today... so predictable.