I went.

Very much NO leaning beforehand. After flying for two days and talking to other pilots I expected a much more contentious, like 2010, meeting. I came in an hour late to a very quiet and respectful group listening to highlights of each section. I believe they were on section 9 when I got there so I can’t speak about anything before. This is what I remember:

Notifications: there is no longer a requirement for the company to pay if the scheduling fails to notify of scheduling changes. So, like today, delayed 3 hours. No call. I get money. If this thing passes, no money. When asked why, the answer given was, “We’re all grownups. All capable of looking at the board to see if your flight’s on time.”

But, if we see the delay on our own, with no call from scheduling, we still have to report at the original report time or risk insubordination.

Rescheduling before going to hotel: This came up a lot. Only your duty time limits how long you can wait around for the company to decide if they want to use you. It could be 12 hours. You get two hours pay. If you don’t want to wait around all day - “call out fatigued.” A line they claimed came from Bendo.

They also don’t think the company wants to use this ability. They really don’t think they will use it. It just creates to much trickle down.

This was a common answer to a lot of concerns brought up - “They probably won’t do that very much.”

This doesn’t give me much confidence in the less than stellar language throughout section 25. They made a big point of talking about “intent” and how they had agreed to specific intent throughout the TA. but these are the same people who didn’t even ask for stock options in 2010 because the company said they had no intent to IPO.

They also cited gains we should have made now but didn’t for future negotiations. One of the reasons I voted yes in 2010 was I didn’t feel comfortable sending these guys back to renegotiate a better deal. Nothing I heard today changed my mind about that.

There was a lot more but I’m spent. There was very little animosity which tells me most of the crowd was okay with it.

I’m still leaning no, but this thing will pass.

Just remember it’s not a 5 or an 8 year deal. It’s however long you’ve got left in this career. Once you give something away it doesn’t come back.