A difference of opinion on C&R as well as this web board may get you at least a blanket party. But NORMALLY I would agree with you. But we don't have differences of opinion here. It's differences of CULTURES and background. Sure we are still deciding what is best for us. Reasonable and prudent people will do that....EXCEPT FOR THE PILOTS HERE. If everyone would simply QUIT the blame game we might have SOME leverage. YOU AND I CANNOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT MANAGEMENT. THEY ARE WHO THEY ARE. Everyone implies we are underpaid (below industry) but really who are we to BLAME in that corner? We still, on average, make about 4.5 times MORE than the national average of $50,000 so I don't think your going to get much sympathy from the customers, your fellow employees or the general population including Congress. We're better than JetBlue, Spirit, Hawaiian and Alaska for sure. Only Delta, United and SWA pay better, but we STILL (and we still will) beat out SWA for the international because SWA CAN'T GET ANY BIG AIRCRAFT ORDERS IN.

So,what and where does that leave US and what can WE do with ourselves? Can WE improve? Can We CHANGE and ADAPT?

I vehemently disagree that management is the problem. What you fail to address is that Management is management and blaming them for the contract we have now is not their fault. It was what the MAJORITY wanted and that is the simple fact.

We have to live with that. OR......if we want a contract IMPROVEMENT (which the Company is NOT obligated to give because we have a SIGNED agreement already) then they are willing to pay up but they want SOMETHING in return. I do not find that unusual. That's management.

When I came ON here and said that their initial offer was a great offer, that was in comparison to what they agreed to pay us under the original MOU. The 5 seat addition to AIRFRAMES and not an increase in AIRCRAFT was not going to be a SCOPE issue because adding 5 seats without an increase in airframes means no gain or loss of jobs. Others disagree (you don't have to try and prove it because it's off the table anyway) and that is fine.

So after getting shouted down by SCOPE fanatics (who BTW set the sails for SCOPE in prior years in any case) the company finally dropped it. But they still felt there were other give and takes. There were those here that, with little or no information (which, BTW, the BOD is STILL withholding from the rank and file that information) were saying "go to arbitration and take our chances". I BELIEVED (and STILL BELIEVE) that the junior pilots needed and deserved better pay. Say what you want, the junior guys could use the money. Some junior pilots may have their reasons for NOT wanting the money but I think that reasoning wasn't prudent.

Arbitration, HISTORICALLY, has ALMOST ALWAYS FAVORED.....YOU GUESSED IT.....THE COMPANY. Labor somehow seems to think arbitration under the RLA gives the UNION magical powers when the history does NOT bear that relationship. The AMFA arbitration just proved that here recently.

Which brings us to the present. First, I am accepting of the MOU as it stands today. I can live with it. I THOUGHT there could have been MAJOR improvements to it when it was proffered but both the APA BOD (being in BK) and the USAPA (being left out of the process by the APA and the Company) but that ship sailed. The major differences between East/West/LAA/LUS/TWA, etc. are still present and the bad blood continues to fester with PAB and SLI. You can see it in the split votes of the BOD. It's no secret. The Company doesn't live in a vacuum.

Having a JCBA instead of arbitration would at least have put that issue to rest and given more time to the rank and file to homogenize, if you will, and let some of the dust settle.

There is not ONE OF YOU here that has ever knowingly met me and for the few who try to bust my balls (I definitely don't loose sleep over it) I don't ever CARE to meet. They are the closed minded, unyielding, and antiquated. The industry is CHANGING. It has always been changing and if you cannot accept change then you simply don't accept the reality of life and are DEFINITELY IN THE WRONG BUSINESS.

Know this, RLA and NLRA changes are in the air and when that actually takes place I know not when, but I DO KNOW that it WON'T FAVOR LABOR. I've seen this industry go through deregulation, consolidation, 9/11, bankruptcy, fuel crisis, the great recession (I'm sure you could add more) and through all that, only the STRONG in the aviation industry survived. And now they (the airlines, for one) are reaping the results of the seeds that were sown....EXCEPT FOR LABOR.

It is time for Labor and Management to make better peace for everyones future. The future, NOT the present because that damage is still occurring. Labor is the ONLY group in the US that has NOT come to terms with the NEW economy. Europe's labor unions are grappling with the economic issues as we speak. Not to mention everywhere else.

You may NOT like management but from what I've seen so far they seem to be making conservative, intelligent decisions about the future of this airline and I for one am willing to support them in that effort. That DOESN'T make me management. I still have disagreements with what they may decide in the future but it's still a new day as of now.

Got to go to work, which is why I'm up early.

I hope you and yours have a great holiday.