Originally Posted by
newKnow
I'll answer that one.
Yes. It got rid of the B scale.
Plus, whatever we did in 1998, might have helped us in 2003(??). At a time when the industry was still reeling from 9/11, we managed to get a pay raise. Which was unbelievable to many people, back then.
(Ok. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But, that's the way I remember it.
)
OK, I will.
Yes, the B scale went away and we did get a pay raise. Everyone remembers that. What nobody seems to remember is that those were part of the Pre-Strike contract.
The big sticking point in that 1998 contract was NEWCO. The company wanted to "be able to create" a subsidiary to outsource flying (sound familiar?) and we didn't want to let them. The strike ultimately ended after a few weeks on a Wednesday with the NEWCO provision approved. The following Monday morning NWA announced the creation of Compass.
As a B-scale, still-on-probation DC-9 FO, I followed all of this with great interest. I technically wasn't even guaranteed a job after it was over, though the union did promise to bring everyone back. The only material difference between the pre- and post-strike contracts was a small pay raise above the pre-strike figure. I don't remember the exact number for me (it was around $1), but I do remember calculating it would take 3 years for that raise to recoup the salary I lost during the strike.
There is a lot of ego and testosterone tied to that strike even today. "We showed them who was boss!" Unfortunately, I have to disagree. All of the material gains in that contract were there pre-strike. And there were quite a few of those; the Negotiating Committee did a far better job than we recently saw here.
The strike made sense to me going into it; it left me scratching my head after it was over. We got a 3-years-to-recovery pay raise and the company got outsourcing when all was said and done. The strike itself accomplished very little, in my humble opinion.