Originally Posted by
Daniel Larusso
The contract language is very important, but as long as we're short staffed things will always get ugly with any contract or management team as you will push up against the boundaries constantly compared to other times.
You are 1/2 right. Now that schedulers/mgmt has stayed awake trying to find ways to solve the short staffing via holes in the contract, do not think that these techniques will "magically" evaporate when we get a new contract. These techniques by schedulers will certainly be remembered and they are the new normal. To think different is naive and short sighted.
As several other posters have accurately commented, management has boxed themselves into a corner (virtually no hiring in 7 yrs while easily 550 have retired, 767 simulators have been bungled, FAA 757/767 rulings have not gone in mgmts favor, labor relations have been deeply damaged). Mgmt has hatched an ugly duckling that will take years to turn into a pretty swan (assuming mgmt did everything right between now and then).