Originally Posted by Foodstamps

Point taken, however for the record we were, surprisingly to most, arbitrated to that. We never got to vote. Had we, it would have been shot down until it was industry standard, as many of us including our MEC all believed we deserved better, and our pilots at both ALK and VX were extremely unified in such beliefs.

The company can easily afford it and to say otherwise, in this economy, is to believe in the trickle down effect that has been proven to be an economic farce. Sure, more growth is possible with extra cash...so are dividends, CEO raises, management bonuses and issuance of stock options and preferred stock to the BOD. Which do you think will happen first? Be honest.

The fact the arbitrator sided with the company for scope isn't the fault of our MEC or negotiating comittee, we asked for scope, industry standard rates and DC, which was all that what was up for negotiation under the JCBA. Pay rates were midway between company and industry standard, yearly raises were industry standard and DC went to 15%. We got nearly most of what we asked for, besides scope, and many of us were (are) very disappointed and upset about that.

Trust me, in 2020 if we don't get industry standard and scope, the place will burn down. I hope our current and future contracts ultimately help raise the bar for all, even though our current one wasn't perfect and is certainly missing scope. I hope the best for you guys as well, but think your current TA, simply put, just isn't good enough. An arbitrator may be able to sell us short, but we would never vote that way.