[QUOTE]All it will take for PBS/Codeshare to pass will be an offer to "improve" the discretionary flying part of the contract to benefit the 1%ers (the mega senior who benefit from POT, which is the only thing the Lemmings seem to care about), and the promise of "growth". A few will gripe, but in the end, our group will trip over themselves voting YES for it.
That said, I think PBS, and to a lesser extent, codeshare, are red herrings. They are trying to get us to expend negotiating capital on it, like last time. PBS will kill our legendary productivity, and GK knows it. They might want some "good" codeshare, which is likely the reason the "The Smartest Man In The Room" is talking it up recently./[QUOTE]
I think scope/code share is a bigger issue than PBS. PBS will come to SWA eventually. It may not happen this negotiating cycle, but it's coming. Hopefully SWAPA will still be in a position to get it right this time. Correct me if i'm wrong but I heard that you guys experimented with it but the membership hated it. I guess it depends on how bad MVDV and RM want it. As you said, how much negotiating capital is SWAPA willing to spend on it.
I'm actually probably in the minority but I don't think PBS would be bad for SWA IF it's the right vendor and SWAPA has it's hand in it. Transparency a must. I would think you guys have a relatively good enough relationship especially with crew planning and SWAPA SC that it may work. I used to do scheduling committee stuff here as well at my previous airline. PBS was brought up in our last negotiating cycle but it was quickly tabled because of the transparency issues that were brought up. Our problem was pairing optimization issues more than the lines itself. We wanted to help build the pairings but the company was hell bent on not letting us. In mediation it actually worked to our benefit because most of the airlines that have PBS have a much more transparent scheduling system. Another words our request wasn't unreasonable in the eyes of the mediator. Plus we had such a trust issue between the company and pilots we would have had an impossible time
getting it past the membership. We did however make a side letter that we would discuss it after the contract was ratified and we had built in raises if the membership wanted it.