Originally Posted by
XHooker
Not to pile on and my understanding of the proposed JV LOA was limted, my information was second hand, and it was a while ago, but my recollection was it was targeted at ANA specifically and had no domestic or even necessarily Trans-Atlantic component. It was all about Pacific flying.
CAL never got to 6,000 pilots. It was at its largest at the end of the '97-01 hiring, just prior to 9/11 and then when it hired for almost three years from '05-'08 beginning a couple of months after (not before) the ratification of CO2.
I'm not going to go into the conspiracy theories, but in the end, the MEC did turn it down. My understanding is it was presented by the then NC Chair and had the backing of Jay Pierce, but as we know was voted down. The NC Chair wasn't around long after that and I never heard anything about Dave Zullo being involved until now.
The airline environment of the last decade made CALALPA's scope an untenable starting point, so saying the merger was done to get around it is a huge stretch. As far as stagnation, believe me when I tell you I achieved it anyway.
I have seen a seniority list with 6006 pilots on it.
It was right before PBS implementation.
The info you have on the JV LOA is not correct. I definitely agree it had the backing of Pierce, but all best indicators are that Zullo was given a green light to do it and the NC was not involved. Immediately after the second refusal for the LOA Zullo resigned. He actually wanted the MEC to adopt it and NOT send it to the pilots for a vote. That was probably why it failed. ANA was a peripheral piece. The real meat and potatoes was to essentially outsource the flying to get the price of a pilot lower. The proof here would be obvious. CAL thought it could negotiate partnership agreements with international carriers (code share) to do the long haul flying as we never really replaced the DC10 fleet upon retirement. With a lack of wide-bodies, and no way to solve that problem (lack of orders, and no-caving from MEC) CAL thought it juicy to look at the route network via a merger. UAL made sense due to three factors: ALPA-ALPA, wide-body-international network, and non overlapping/non redundant domestic network. With only 9 overlapping domestic routes, and keeping all 9 it made it very appealing. But, I think it all started with that JV LOA. It wasn't really a joint venture. To do a JV you would need to name a suitor. The JV LOA would have likely precluded a merger, however, it for sure would have postponed one. Since CAL hadn't had a meaningful pay raise since contract 98 the JV LOA with the 2 percent pay raise was simply a slap in the face. It would have only absorbed about 60 percent of that years cost of living increase due to inflation.