Originally Posted by
eaglefly
One of the few virtual certanties though is that absent this merger, the West pilots would be where they were on December 8, 2013 with no realistic catalyst to resolve the senioirty impasse between East and West and thus no vehicle to access East International flying or any ability to make a single dollar of financial gain due to either Wide body rates or improved pay scales as part of a newly bargained CBA.
The ONLY reason the West could obtain both of these is via this merger. It's simply my opinion that to accomplish that at the expense of LAA pilots and especially those junior here would be a windfall for the minority West. The CBA pay increases have already been realized by the West. Soon, regardless of how the SLI turns out, significant numbers of West pilots will have access to Group IV metal and higher compensation via that as well. It's also likely that more of the Nic will become evident in whatever final model the arbitrators devise. As it stands now, it will be the West minority that will STILL realize the most benefit out of this merger even without a pure Nic and the dilution of junior LAA pilots using advantageous methodologies cherry-picked from the UAL/CAL SLI.
That is my opinion.
1) It might have taken a while, but despite east assertions it's hard to see how in the long run east could have succeeded in making the end run around the arb award. They've been warned (now ordered) about this. It is possible east could have dragged it out another 10 years though without pay raises for anyone by just avoiding proposing a list, so no question that this merger is a BIG win for the ENTIRE east / west pilot group as it forces resolution. They should ALL bow down to AA.
2) This big issue with the west is hard to follow. The west pilot issue is vis a vis other US Airways pilots. West pilots slot in higher on a combined US airways list, other US airways folks gets pushed down. Junior AA guys end up in the same place.
3 Where west could really win is if they get slotted in close to Nic and then get some benefit in the ISL based on the expected combined us airways attrition from east side mostly which is going to be huge.
4) Isn't the issue for the junior AA guys the folks not flying coming in above them on the AA list plus lower expected attrition?
Should be fun!