Originally Posted by
sulkair
Forgive the lame analogies - I am just trying to describe what I'm thinking, and it seems easiest.
So called 'cooler heads' keep saying "relax guys, it's called negotiations" Making the case that it's normal for the company to start at - 10, and we start at + 10 and meet somewhere around Zero. Fine! But that's not what happened. Is it? ...... And this is my concern (not a complaint mind you, just a concern, and I'm open to correction)
We didn't start at + 10. We didn't even start at + 1. The pay proposals that the union came up with, in my mind, were too low and are the very least we should accept. And that's assuming we give absolutely nothing away and also make strong gains wrt to retirement, health insurance, and the other proposals they made.
Then we get the company's proposal and it isn't -10. It's at like -100! So here we are: We started on the main floor of the house, when we should have started on the roof, and they started in the bottom of the septic tank under a sludge of $#!t instead of the basement. Where will we meet up???
the proposals our association made are not set in stone. i said this a couple pages ago, but in lieu of the company's "offer", we need to tell our representatives to re submit new proposals that are-say 15% higher across the board in every aspect of the contract based on whatever airline has the best number in that particular category. if the company resubmits proposals even lower, then we come back with greater demands increased again by the same factor. legacies fly the same airplane we do. the only thing keeping us from getting the same contract they have is that we are being too spineless to ask for(demand) it.
this-and only this- will give us room to negotiate if it turns out that we need to.
the truth is that mediation doesn't mean much. it is not binding. no one has to agree to the advice they give. mediation is part of the process on the way to getting released to the 30 day cooling off period. arbitration is binding.
all of this has the potential to be a slippery slope. the present proposals do indeed seem like the minimum the pilot group will accept. the problem is that if we are unwilling to move from this position, the mediator may see us as being unreasonable and refuse to release us to the cooling off period. depending on who the mediator is, they may also see our proposals as reasonable and the company's as unreasonable. the problem is that you just never know.
the point of my post here is that i agree with you sulk. i believe we really need to raise our demands. this can be easily justified by southwest's new t.a. the market has changed to our benefit. i assume spirit, delta, and hawiian will get contracts before we do as well. i believe that when they do, we need to increase our demands again based on what they achieve. we owe it to ourselves and we deserve it. we don't work for a regional. the legacy affiliate can't whipsaw us by sending our flying another regional to keep wages low. we are the only pilot group that can do the flying that we do. they can't replace us. this is the biggest strength to our cause.
when spirit was in their cooling off period several years ago, indigo threatened to to shut down their then profitable airline if the pilots elected to go on strike. no one shuts down a profitable company for this reason. the pilots called their bluff and won. when we get to this point, they will yell and scream and threaten us too. in the end they will do what they need to do to save the cash cow they are riding on top of.
it sure is sad to see that some of you feel so downtrodden that you think your only recourse is to post unprofessional angry spew here in a public forum. none of that is going to get us closer to our goals. walking around the work place acting like an angry "doosh" isn't going to achieve anything unless you consider alienating your coworkers and giving yourself an ulcer an accomplishment. I've been through all this before. we can accomplish what we need to without all this crap. direct your ire where it's appropriate. if you go out of your way just a little bit to do something nice for one of your co-workers, they will probably go out of their way to do something nice for someone they work with too. it will make us a stronger unit. we already need all the help we can get in this area. it doesn't have to cost or save indigo any money one way or the other.