NK pilot here. After a recent conversation with one of our negotiators the biggest take away he had from the whole process of dealing with the NMB was that “we are who we are.” Meaning that if you want Delta pay and benefits, go to Delta. His unfortunate assessment was that the NMB pidgin holed the NK pilot group into the NMB’s predetermined hierarchy within the industry and no matter how long we held out, screamed and shouted there was an artificial ceiling the NMB would never allow us to break through.
We got what we could in the end. Or more precisely we got what the NMB allowed us to get. The NMB was actually flabbergasted that we turned down the October 2017 offer from the company and held out for LTD and defined contributions albeit at the expense of accepting a PBS path to a contract
It fell short of the expectations of most of the rank and file but we got what we got and we’re moving forward.
I present this perspective only as a glimpse into what one of our negotiators experienced in our process.
I hope for the sake of my friends at F9 you will ultimately get something on the table soon.