The Surveys
For years, I have heard that "they didn't follow the survey."
While that may or may not be accurate, it is also irrelevant. Polling is a tool, primarily used to judge the pilots' priorities. It does not (nor is it intended to) lock our negotiators into any one position. It is meant to assist them, not to handcuff them. Often, market forces, political pressures, economic factors, etc. prevent negotiators from achieving every item in surveys. It's common and expected.
That's where leadership comes in. Leadership that at the moment we seem to be lacking. Our reps are supposed to represent us, but they are also supposed to lead. They are privy to things we aren't. They have information that we don't. We elect them and pay them to make decisions on our behalf. They are not supposed to be mindless megaphones for the pilots. If they are, why not just replace them with Internet polling and have what amounts to a 13,500-man negotiating committee?
If every pilot asked for a million dollars a year in the survey, many on here believe that our MEC's job is then to get every pilot a million dollars a year. It isn't. True leaders, ones who aren't scared of their pilots, would write updates, stand in the lounges, face the slings and arrows of angry pilots, and explain reality.
Unfortunately, our MEC is beginning to look like panderers, rather than leaders. Not sure what your reps are? Ask yourself if they have ever said anything that you didn't want to hear. If they haven't, then you don't have a leader, you have a panderer. And eventually, those panderers are going to cost you a fortune if they don't learn to lead.
We deserve an industry-leading contract. We shouldn't accept anything less. But true leaders should tell you that "industry-leading" doesn't mean every page of every section of the PWA, and that the only way that that goal is achievable is to address some of management's concerns as well. There will be small "gives" in the next contract. There is simply no way around it. And your reps know it.
If they aren't telling you that, they are not only pandering, they are ignoring and suppressing the voice and advice of the experts that they have hired to advise them. And they are lying to you.
It's easy to be a hero. Just tell people what they want to hear. But eventually the people are going to want to see some results. I just hope they don't wait too long.