Originally Posted by
Slammer
As I understand, the arbitrators will consider everything within labor law, historical precedence and all the ALPA merger policy. They have the stick now, and to state what " they cannot reward, and precedent they cannot set", is pretty bold and absolute....don't you think!
Agree. They will also look at how that historical precedence has changed, and more importantly - why it changed. I've said this before - ALPA has to protect itself. As much as you might believe that ALPA is taking a hands-off approach to this, it is an ALPA dispute that is very important to the organization. It needs to work, needs to be fair, and it needs to comply with ALPA merger policy (including the intent of the policy).
To presume that a proposition that addresses only 1/2 of one of the 3 tenets of ALPA merger policy and is even more extreme than the Nic award will be accepted or frankly, even considered, is patently absurd.
This is much bigger than just this merger. There will be more. This ALPA merger/sli will set a precedent. I think it was a mistake for the CAL side to basically ignore ALPA merger policy. They basically gave ALPA National and the arbitrators the finger and argued that something outrageous was absolutely reasonable.
Scott