Originally Posted by TrinityDawn

The problem with the flow-through is that it's been a pipe dream for far too long. First it was poorly negotiated, and after 9/11 we had lots of furloughed AA guys come to Eagle as out-of-seniority captain "flowbacks." We spent 10 years in arbitration to try and get the company to comply with the flow through, and as a result of the Nicolau TWA decision got 824 flowthrough slots in addition to the guys that already had AA numbers. We have guys that have waited over a decade that are just now flowing. The company (AMR and now AAG) has constantly *****ed about our payroll costs due to seniority, but yet they have resisted flowing more of our senior guys at every step along the way. A couple years ago the company yet again violated our CBA and took our airplanes off the Eagle certificate, and as result of negotiation we got a "protected pilot" agreement that gave flow to everyone on property as of Oct of '11. Of course, now they are giving away our airplanes left and right. Basically the moral of the story is that we've been jerked around so long by the promise of flowing to AA that it's almost a bad joke to us. I've been at Eagle/Envoy nine years, and I'm STILL almost three years away from flowing....assuming the hiring at AA doesn't stop for whatever reason. It looks great to new hires in company propaganda, but the unfortunate reality of broken promises is far more soul-crushing.

The reason we are shrinking is because AAG is giving away our airplanes. They are attempting to make life so miserable here that we shrink to a size they can more easily whipsaw us, and our "NO" votes never again endanger their operation. Whatever you do, don't go into this thinking that everything will be sunshine and lollypops. You'll be on reserve a long time, at a company that won't even in good faith negotiate with us to make our reserve rules compliant with 117. YMMV.