TonyC

I didn't see you in the room when this process began with selecting a Negotiating Committee, forming our openers, and beginning the process of negotiating a new CBA. Our openers did NOT contain restrictions on what could or could not be done with the Defined Benefit Plan, and the first priority was not to keep everyone on the same plan. Certainly that was a priority, but the only priority published in our openers was "Improve DB Plan."


Now, I don't know what kind of lenses you are using to view it, but NO CHANGE is NOT an improvement to the DB plan.


I guess you might go to the car dealership driving your old Pinto and looking for a new 2-door sports car. You send your Pinto to the back to be appraised and cleaned up and tell the salesman you want something faster and sexier than the Pinto, but he tells you that all their 2-door cars are very, very expensive, and besides, none of them have steering wheels. Well, by golly, you can't have a sexy 2-door without a steering wheel, so you dig in and demand you must have a steering wheel or there's no deal. Hang on, the salesman goes to the back and returns a few minutes later to inform you that he has one 2-door with a steering wheel, it's Pinto that some guy just traded in, and as soon as they finish washing it, you can have a look. Where do you sign?

You drive away in a Pinto with a fresh wash and wax, but, by golly, it has the steering wheel you demanded. VICTORY IS YOURS!!!!


Some people might think you'd look foolish doing that, and I think we'd look foolish voluntarily surrendering our A Plan to a Company that is wildly successful, hugely profitable, and growing at a tremendous pace. While others had theirs ripped away in times of bankruptcy or duress, you want to vote yours away in an environment of growth and profit?

If we vote this thing in, that's what we'll be doing, and that's how we'll be known. The pilots who voted away their A plan for absolutely noting in return, while their employer was hauling profits to the bank in giant wheelbarrows.


Can they afford to raise the FAE cap? Of course they can. You remember the MEC Chairman and the Negotiating Committee Chairman telling us all along that our demands (including "Improve DB Plan") were reasonable, and The Company could afford them. Of course, and you trusted them to be telling the truth. Why has the story changed now? Before The Company could afford what we wanted, and you trusted them. Now, The Company can't afford what we wanted, and you trust them now? Well, which was it, err, is it?

I submit they were right before, The Company can afford to raise the FAE cap, or they would not have committed in 2006 to do that very thing for the "next" CBA. Now they've reneged, and we're supposed to buy it? No, as of now they've committed to fund a Defined Benefit Plan for pilots who have not even been hired. What's so different between that and increasing the FAE Cap for a pilot who is already here? It's all about dollars, and they have 'em.



Finally! It's about time you stopped posing as an open-minded fence-sitter.






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