You know, my original post was unnecessarily toxic, and I apologize for that. That is what you get when hastily typing stuff out on your phone.

And as a no voter (who would do the same again, despite what the "math guy" says) I still need to remind us all that we need to live in the real world.

The NMB ultimately has a stranglehold on the process, a process which by design is meant to be slow, methodical, etc. That usually works against us. Occasionally it works in our favor when times are tough and we have a lucrative contract--then mgmt is the one bemoaning the slow "process."

But more often than not the process is stacked against us. That doesn't mean that we don't negotiate strongly, and walk away if needed. But wearing orange, shouting "Restoration!" from the mountaintops (repeatedly) or making endless Facebook and message board posts really amounts to very little. At some point we need to acknowledge that there are two sides to any negotiation.

The company's record profits are to our benefit negotiation-wise, but that doesn't mean we get everything we want any time we want, any more than the company gets everything they want when times are tough. For those who claim we gave up a lot in BK...they are totally correct. But if you saw the company's opener they wanted a whole lot more (which I have never forgotten, by the way, lest I get too pro-company in my thoughts).

I don't for one nano-second believe the "math guy" when he says that our No vote was driven by some secret DPA and PMNW cabal. Most of us just voted no based on the language.

So the process is currently on a slower track right now. I know that at some point, hopefully by next summer, we will get a good agreement, and one that acknowledges both sides of the table.