Originally Posted by
Otto pilot
I hope that CAL pilots standing together for a good contract will help other airlines get better contracts too. I won't stand together for a bad contract. I do wish ALPA would act as one instead of dozens of different unions. Think of the power if all ALPA members fought for all ALPA members!
I think our best shot is to hope the others pull us up. A couple of things are disturbing about the company's stance during this round of negotiations. This is my third airline, second major, so believe me when I tell you that our negotiating committee is in well over their heads. No disrespect to those gents, but there is absolutely no way a group of pilots is going to negotiate an "industry leading contract" against CAL's professional negotiator and legal counsel. ALPA's negotiator isn't either. What's the answer? An assessment and good legal counsel. Will it happen? No. We've got the most divided and selfish pilot group in existence. Under stand that the company only agreed to open negotiations early on the "non-economical" sections of the contract.......WHA'. The pilots of AAA(east), A/A, UAL and esp NWA are united. They'll be able to negotiate better contracts than our guys due to our fragmentation. If we're lucky, we'll be stuck with POS '02 for a few years until those guys raise the bar. "No" already decided.