Originally Posted by
stickwiggler
Extra,
Good post and hearing the opinions of actual Omni pilots, especially ones who were here for the last dance is very important.
But, respectfully, I think the one thing we all agree on is THAT LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT. No one is disputing that.
The problem is that the company says they are willing and ready to negotiate the specifics but only within the confines of the existing offer. Some call that a take it or leave it offer; and they wouldn't be wrong.
It does seem rather totalitarian and no one likes to be on the receiving end of that.
But, trying to be fair and looking at both sides of the argument, the company believes that they have made this offer with respect to previous request from the Union and that every time they acquiesce, the Union ask for more.
IMHO, they have made a pretty good case for proving that point.
I would be as patient as anyone for a new contract if we were at the point of just hammering out language, but it does seem that we're miles from even starting that process because the Union keeps adding additional requests (ESPECIALLY given the fact that they seem to be the requests of another pilot group rather than our own).
Like so many others on here, I admit that I could be wrong because the simple fact is we have very little information to work with.
a year ago I begged and pleaded this Union to have better communication and warned that this point in the negotiation was coming.
The proverbial chicken has come home to roost.
P.S. No FAs on the program are 2 to a room and as i understand it, the override your talking was about galley pay which they were told the could keep. Some are saying that the company lied and took it away. Not true. The galley pay was a $2 override, but only FAs working in certain galleys were getting it.
Now the pay is $1 but more FAs get it for working any galley.
Look, my number one concern with the NC putting the company offer out for a vote today as-is is that I believe at least 51% of the pilots would vote yes regardless of how many holes are in it because all they see are dollar signs. I could very possibly be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. But the thought of that being a possibility however makes me shutter. To me, all of that money is no good if I'm staying at garbage hotels and getting screwed out of business class due to clever wording by the company. I don't want to be forced to live like I'm in college for 18 days on the road while I afford to live well on my 12/13 days at home.
As far as the goal post moving, I understand the concern. But having talked to people in the know, I think it's really designed to get the company to close out the discrepancy's on AIMS and health care in exchange for the union dropping the 16 day demand. Maybe it's a bad tactic. But I believe that the healthcare is truly the big hold up. They haven't moved the goalpost on health care to my knowledge, but the company won't negotiate that item.
With regards to the FA's, I didn't mean program FA's have stayed 2 to a room, but that it's happened to genpop fa's. I realize looking back that my wording was unclear. I don't know all of the details on the galley pay, but I thought that it changed from what they were told.