Originally Posted by
eaglefly
Without some form of a reasonable counter, the APA BOD (at least a majority) won't destroy their credibility by crying Uncle and punting the initial proposal to the pilots. They'd look like hideous cowards and would render themselves impotent in any future interaction with management. Parker solidifies both his old self and the old AA by strong-arming APA, as well. In contrast, more of the pilots would become anti-Parker and militancy would increase substantially.
I still find the divide in perception among new AA pilots to be very interesting. It seems most legacy AA and West pilots seem to be in the same general place regarding this situation (that being Parker WANTS a deal over arbitration), but East pilots see Parker and thus THIS situation exactly like the past and seem to believe that arbitration is a certainty....even preferable.
Parker would rather get a vote and be able to make some sort of positive PR announcement. However, he will be just fine with arbitration and he is not in the least worried about how unhappy the employees are. Sure, it would be great if it didn't cost much. The $$$ amount, that employee happiness is worth to Parker is very low - not zero, but very low. APA can threaten and even follow though with the threats and in the end- somewhere down the road, Parker might regret what he is doing now. But that day is sometime well into the future. Parker has nothing to work with in his management repertoire other than this dance. Union buster Glass is here to be his choreographer. The best thing that we can do for ourselves is understand exactly what the MOU spells out. I hope that we get some good advice on this so that I can make a prudent decision this time when I vote.