aa73,
I like your posts and usually find you correct and very reasonable. But, this is wrong on so many levels. Let me take it from the top.

I don't know what it's going to take to convince you that your belief in Doug is unfounded. He is absolutely fine with arbitration. In fact, he probably has preferred it all along as TexasPilot (who is so often wrong) suggested. This isn't a "negotiating strategy". This is a cram down! What kind of "negotiating strategy" says take what I want or go to arbitration? It's a false choice. A damned-if-you-damned-if-you-don't scenario. A Kobayashi Maru exercise. And, Parker designed it all along. You see...here it is...Parker already believes he has a contract, because...he does!! We're set...in stone...until 2019. This is just another quid-pro-quo exercise. "I'll give you a little more if you give me these small things." "If you don't, then you already have a contract you should be VERY HAPPY with!" When we say no, which we inevitably will, and which he is counting on, then he'll tell anyone that will listen "I tried to make them the highest paid pilots in the entire universe..they just wouldn't do it." He'll say that at Crew News sessions, Town Halls, Conference Calls, interviews, you name it.

But...you say...he 'really doesn't want to lose the good will of the pilots.' Man...he couldn't give two sh!ts if we're happy or ****ed. Believe that! He does not care! That Freudian slip of his in the Town Hall was not a pre-planned comment designed to throw us off...that is his way of thinking! (I'm talking about "Employees don't affect the daily profits.") He really believes that. He knew he was making a mistake saying that out loud and he tried to back off it even as he was saying it...but it was too far gone and he was too late. At any rate, he's had POed pilots for a decade and still managed to make profits and impress Wall Street. He even got another pilot group to ignore his proven track record and propel him to the leadership role of the biggest airline in the world! So, in a way, the pilots at LAA validated him. He's proven his theory...he can make POed pilots work. I think the thinking around the APA about why the US Airways guys were so POed is..."well...those US Air [sic] are rookies. We'll show them how to run a union. We know how to make this operation come to a halt...those JV pilots over there aren't as smart as us." (You can see that attitude right here on this board with our very own eaglefly.) That hubris is why we are where we are today.

That's right. That's because this is not a negotiating strategy at all. It's an attempt to wring more concession.

Wrong again, mi amigo. We don't recoup the pay. The estimates on C&R show that rejecting the offer and going to arbitration will cost each pilot at least $60,000 (for junior FOs) and more than 6 figures for others. (Although, I still think arbitration is the right path at this point.) And, it's not two years earlier. The MOU runs through Dec 2018. Parker asked to run this contract through Jan 2020. That's only one year (but still completely unacceptable.) Still...let's be correct when we slam this offer.

Noboby is scared of arbitration (except maybe Route66 but even he is not scared. He just wants to make as much as he can before he's forced out. He doesn't care how it affects anybody else...but, hey! That's how pilots do!) But, what the company is offering today is much more than what we'd get anyway and we will not "almost completely recoup [it] at the end of 3 years with arbitration." That said...Let's get ready for arbitration, boys!