Originally Posted by
e6bpilot
SWAPA today is not the SWAPA of 4 years ago. The pilots are a lot more engaged. I think most are aware of the warts in the new CBA but are willing to lock in the gains and go forward despite them. The unintended consequence of stonewalling us for 4 plus years is that the company has awakened the sleeping giant in this group of pilots.
I agree that there are a lot more engaged and educated pilots here than in years past, but still not nearly enough to turn that engagement and education into an industry
average contract, as was proven by the vote yesterday.
Heck, all many folks had to see was the bullet points, retro calculator and pay rates and before they even read the actual contract, were shouting "VOTE YES! all over social media and the forums. Great way to maintain leverage.
It's easy to throw stones when you are a no voter and say "I told you so". It's a lot harder to actually do something about it like run for office.
I am personally glad the blowhards exist. We need the other side of the issue in order to balance this group out. I just hate the "I voted no, don't blame me" in your face nonsense. It gets old. We overwhelmingly approved the CBA. Time to move on.
With all due respect, what gets old is watching my peers shoot themselves in the foot, over and over, for decades.
I really hate that it's hard to find anyone that will admit to voting yes on the many concessions we've handed the company over the years, yet every one of them passed a membership vote, overwhelmingly.
As for running for office, BTDT. I've served in previous lives, and ran for domicile rep here, but, honestly, I am glad I lost by 9 votes, because, as a consistent no voter, I don't think I could "represent" the majority of SWAPA pilots.
Al kidding aside, SWAPA did a good, scratch that, an amazing job getting the pay and retirement
almost to industry average.
Frankly, I am surprised that they got what they did given the gaping hole that SWApA placed us in, giving away leverage by the shovelful via years of concessions, topped off by a 38% vote on TA1, not to mention federal mediation.
The bad part is that the
rest of our contract is virtually unchanged with the new one, and, IMHO, has needed a
major overhaul for years. Lots of little (and not so little) QOL gotchas and gray areas that cost us QOL and pay have needed fixing for a
long time.
This TA was our chance to do it, or at least some of it and it fell way short.
At least most of it (I am still uneasy about Sec1) isn't appreciably worse than what we have now, so there's that. We even got our first, ever, "me too" into it!
The reserve improvements were a step in the right direction, but, talking to folks that actually have to sit it, they could've done better.
I believe that any more changes are very unlikely to happen for a long time, now that we've given the company most of what they wanted from us. As usual, I'd love to be wrong.
Maybe SWAPA can leverage the "forgotten" MOU into something tangible for the group? I wouldn't be against a side letter or 2, provided unlike in the past, that the pilots got something out of them.
Anyway, I am not gonna lose sleep over the results of this vote.
I get a decent raise, better retirement, a nice retro check and, like the current one, I'm senior enough to still not have to sweat
most of the not so great things in our contract.
I hope.