Originally Posted by
Dave Fitzgerald
Possibly. We were asked specifically why we have not gone the NMB route yet. I agree, it is too early to go there, as was stated, we are making progress, just not much.
However my point is that if we were to get to that point, because of the White House, the NMB option is not currently a viable avenue for realistic contractual gains we are looking for.
However, with the announcement of Kirby this morning, I have pretty much lost any hope of getting a contract this next decade--making the NMB argument possibly a bit stronger, but also further off in the future. Scope was being scrutinized before, now it will be under full assault.
Scope will be under full assault, but Kirby can no more force us to relax scope that we can force him to sign a contract. I’m not doom and gloom about this yet. Kirby has been calling many of the shots, while Oscar was the people person, so we have yet to see what this will change. Time is on our side, scope is working, I’m going to relax and watch the show. I don’t think who is in the White House really has that much effect on our contract talks. I doubt that the views of those on the NMB would differ that much under either party. We like to argue over which one would help us more, but I don’t think that history has shown that it makes a difference as far as airline pilots go.