I went to a roadshow and hiring was NEVER mentioned (LGA). Every aspect including the potential net reduction of 125 positions was made clear, and guys asked honest questions. Far from a sales job, I was present for the NC telling us clearly where the gains and where the warts were.

Couple things. Our MEC elected pilot negotiators usually have lots of overlap to prevent a knowledge drain year in and year out. It's way more than a crash course, and the other background skills and knowledge are much more suited to airline contracts than "Joe lawyer negotiator." We have the top RLA labor negotiating firm on retainer and never go into a meeting without attorneys present.

The Comapy doesn't have professional negotiators. Think Steve D., Tim H. Glen H., J. Graham, with a lawyer from DL corporate, rarely but on occasion Glen C.

None of those people are professional negotiators, save "maybe" their labor lawyer, but even he doesn't have the experience in RLA/pilot contracts that Cohen, Weiss, and Simon lawyers have amassed.

BTW, D-ALPA hired an outside law firm to do some negotiations work during C2K and were fired well before the end game because they were unable to grasp the complexities of the PWA. They were useless to the negotiating effort. It was a waste of our dues dollars, and made that last dues refund check even smaller.

Your yes or no vote is fine either way by me, it wasn't an easy call (I changed my vote 3 times). But it's disingenuous to say it was "sold" with hiring promises or that our negotiators are subpar.