Originally Posted by
SewerPipeDvr
I have been out of the business for a very many years, but my experience as a attorney gives me some insight. The Yes and No fight is what the company really wants. The money stuff is immaterial at this time to them. They are making a LOT of money right now. What the company wants more than anything else is IN-effective labor groups. You guys are fighting like a pack of dogs over scraps, not seeing the guys standing over you watching with glee. NO money is worth a strong cohesive UNIFIED work group. You are supposed to be the best and brightest. Open your eyes, step back and THINK. Look at what you are doing. Like puppets on a string with ParkerGlass and Company working you hard. Cut the strings, **** and let ONLY your leadership know what you are thinking. Keep the company off balance. Letting the company know what you are thinking gives them strategy (and the ammo to shoot you down). Just an observation from a old guy long past his prime from the days of round engines. My first Captain (Skinner) was taught to fly in San Diego by Pilot Certificate #975 in 1936. His instructor was one of the Wright Brothers.
Silence and a yes vote gives them what they want in the future when they may NOT be making huge profits, yet squabbling about it now proves to them they are on solid ground to get that. In other words, at this point we're screwed unless the TA is rejected. The only path out is rejection, sucking it up and working under the present Green Book (still getting the majority of our raises as per the MOU), coming together and rebuilding ourselves as unified and relevant for WHENEVER the time that Parker must reengage.
Unfortunately, that's the more difficult path and one that isn't as easily rationalized. I'd rather send them a message of internal chaos as we are doing now and have the ability to correct it, then making them wonder only to be confirmed at the end of the month. Besides, what's more destabilizing to a company than a critical segment of its employees that are essentially at war with EACH OTHER ?
The beauty of that, is that tends to be something NO ONE can control, not management nor a union leadership. Wouldn't it be interesting in the future if Parker and Glasses strategy of busting this union (and that IS the strategy) simply lit the fuse to something that cannot be stopped from going off even with a subsequent change of heart ?
It worked for him at US Airways, but toward the end he knew it would not only not work for the long-term, he had no way to correct it.
Out-of-control chaos may not be such a bad place to be when you've got nothing to lose and nowhere to go but up.
Just a thought, anyway.......