Originally Posted by
full of luv
You must see some of Wacks point of view. In the end, Airtran ALPA felt that SWAPA and SWA Mgmt worked together to box them into a corner which led to the "agreement"
Of course I see "some" of his points of view. I understand that no one likes to get their cheese moved. If I was a senior captain living in base and driving to work instead of commuting this whole deal would be a large and upsetting career disruption. He most likely wishes that the whole acquisition never took place, that is a belief I wholeheartedly share. If I had the ability to shoot the deal down, I gladly would have. I would have been quite content to soldier along and wait for organic growth as opposed to growth through acquisition.
The problem is the vitriol he spews against the common line pilot that had just as little input to the process as he experienced. The vast majority of pilots on either side had little to no involvement in the direct negotiation of this deal other than one vote for yes or no.
The offers in this agreement came directly from Southwest management NOT SWAPA. SWA was invited into the negotiations directly through the process agreement. If anyone remotely believes that the average line pilot had ANY input as to how and why the company negotiated this deal they are absolutely delusional. The negotiating committees came together and hammered out a deal with Southwest management, not with each other. Whether or not that was the best way of proceeding is anyone's guess, but hindsight is 20/20. If either union wished to exclude SWA from being involved in the process it should have been laid out in the process agreement considering the fact that that document is specifically written in order to shape the way negotiations proceed.
It seems that Whack wants to blame everyone but ALPA and his fellow union members for this deal, when in actuality the vast majority of pilots had exactly zero input to the process or exactly the same amount of influence he was able to put forth.