FIIG,

That street goes both ways. As in, we came to the company, too. We wanted increased pay AND credit for vacation. We wanted increased training pay AND credit, too.

The one thing that has been constant is that the company has a staffing problem. Some people might not see how severe it is, because it doesn't affect their fleet, but look around.

This past summer it was the 717 fleet. Summer before that, 7er fleet. Before that, it was the MD89 and before that it was the 320's.

With the retirements we have coming up and the airplanes we have that are yet to be delivered, their problem is only going to get worse.

I admit, it is THEIR problem. But, we need to understand that the company isn't going to agree to anything that exacerbates that problem.

This VB concept is a concession. It's a tradeoff for gains we achieve in staffing in other parts of the TA and there are two things that are good about it for us:

1.). It might actually be helpful for some pilots, &

2.) If we don't like the way it's being used (i.e., too many positions are being lost), we can give notice and back out. There is no such provision for the company to back out of our credit for vacation and training.

Think about it. If the company "acts up," we could back out and have a net gain of positions from this.

As a guy on the bottom of the list in NYC, I recognize that VB's will probably adversely affect me, but it doesn't change my assessment for us as a group:


..because we can back out, this part of the TA is either a push, or a win.