Originally Posted by
DashTrash
For me, scope is the single most important section of a contract also. The only thing that I was saying, is that once industry standard is established (which happened when DAL ratified their agreement) that language is very difficult to negotiate more restrictive than that. It comes down to what you are willing to give up for it because the Company is in the drivers seat from a negotiating standpoint, and they know it! If it were to come down to it, and the negotiations actually end up in binding arbitration, you would be on the losing side if you were asking for language more restrictive than industry standard. Also, in the mediation phase the mediator will fall back on what the industry standard is.
First of all negotiations don't end up in binding arbitration unless you agree to it and give up your self help right.
Secondly keeping the scope you have can be done. An example of this is the LCAL contract 02. While it was concessionary and ground was given in many areas the 50 seat jet scope was successfully retained at a time that the "industry standard" was 70 seats. The idea was that scope once given away is impossible to recapture while pay rates, work rules etc... Can be improved.