Originally Posted by
Wheelswatch
I actually appreciate the reassurance many posters are giving, as well as the admonishment to settle down. I think the cooler heads do have the moral high ground on this, so I will take all this advice. If I'm honest, the fear comes from past experiences, at the regional level, feeling like ALPA pushed us, or scared us, into accepting truly industry trailing stuff. One time a contract passed by 8 votes, and the vigorous campaign to get it through felt so forced. Granted, that was then and this is now, nor are we fee for departure here, so I concede these feelings no longer apply. Apples and Oranges right?
Agreed.
There are really TWO issues here: one) is that we were negotiating a "moving target" given that the longer it took, the greater our ask needed to be to keep up with the industry and two) is maintaining the perception of good faith bargaining while doing so. Which is why I mentioned in previous postings that our initial ask was way too low. I'm already unhappy w/ the NC about that. I think they're bargaining skills may be fine (or they may not be I'm not really in a position to tell) but I DO know i'm not willing to vote yes on a POS TA that is industry average or lower. At this point, it may be water under the bridge as it seems that time of negotiations are over.
Now, STEP 1 is we need to ENGAGE the NMB with a proffer to ensure that days, weeks or more don't pass by while no efforts are made to get a new contract. This is why we pay ALPA what we do. This is the time our NC earns their keep. This is when we determine if they are the right ones for the job.
Once that happens, and the NMB releases us, STEP 2 (probably during the cooling off period) is that we make our ask to be an above industry standard contract. That doesn't mean above industry average wages but crappy QoL rules. That's above industry standard as a whole. This is absolutely necessary because it will be average in 2.5 years and below average by the time its time to renegotiate the next one.
Anything else is unacceptable and I'd rather close the doors on the company.