Originally Posted by
Gunga Din
I agree with most of what you've said. This is why the union has to "officially " stay above the fray and, in my opinion, say something like this "dear fellow pilots. While we are currently negotiating we would advise our members to fly only your awarded trip being mindful not to violate any part of the CBA", or something similar. "While we want to apply all legal pressure available to us, we ask members to limit their extra and above the minimum limits in this challenging environment. We recognize this may cause hardship but in the long run we will all benifit. If you considered volunteering for future events outside the required legal bound duties your MEC would ask you to refrain from doing so".
But what did we get? The opposite.
I know your intentions are good, and I agree with your sentiment.
However, that statement would never make it past ALPA legal, guaranteed. The Union can not condone or promote anything that can be considered a job action, the above is a job action. Telling guys to only fly their lines is a job action when past history shows the company has a reasonable expectation that pilots will pick up open time .
Rouge Dragon pamphlets saying to not pick up open time is one thing, the union sending a blast mail out saying this, never going to happen.
Like Ram said, everything we do now has to be viewed with "how will the mediator view this," otherwise you're simply cutting off your nose to spite your face.
And in the end, some guys are going to pick up time and go above and beyond, regardless of any billboard or union email. This is an easy scenario to armchair QB with the "well I would do this or say this." Truth is so much is at play that we need to recognize we entered an important step in mediation, and we need to sit and see how this plays out in the short term.