Shy and Flyin, both of your points are critical to our collective future.
The history lesson and the way forward. Examining our history and learning from it should be the underpinnings of the road ahead.
The obstacles that we face are significant.
The largest,by a substantial margin, is us and by that I mean the original Alaska pilot group. 70 plus percent of us place a much higher value on our residential zip code than we do a collective bargaining ageeement that represents our contribution to Alaska Airlines inc.. To live within an hour of pdx/sea and to a lesser extent anc/lax is the ruler that we measure the value of our contract with. By any measure that has placed us 7th or 8th amongst our peers.
This obvious self-depreciation has led the executives of this company to not only view us with comtempt but to incorporate this “gift” from us into their business plan. Think “Secret Sauce”... Ben Minicucci was genuine when he testified to that end in the Arbitration hearing.
So here we are. JCBA negotiations were an absolute failure on our part. Alaska Airlines is facing significant competive pressure coupled with rising fuel costs. Profits will likely stay flat or turn to losses over the next couple of years. The unity that the two groups built during JCBA negotiations was predictably damaged during SLI negotiations. What remains of it will be finished off in 2 weeks.
We are facing a well scripted management group that spends many millions on the best, most skilled, anti-labor law firms in the country. They have been “negotiating”with us since the ink dried on “contract 200”. They have the best playbook in the industry and will be negotiating in the most favorable competitive and economic conditions for a zero-net gain contract. 2020 will turn into 2022 in the blink of an eye.
Personally I see this growing storm as an opportunity. As a blood-fest. As an opportunity to rid ourselves of the poison that has prevented contractual gains in my 19 plus years here. As an opportunity to finally have union leadership and more importantly union membership that places contractual quality and integrity well above zip-code preference.
If we need to hoist the old “skull and cross bones”, sharpen our knives and “slit some throats” to get it done the so be it.