Originally Posted by
ERflyer
I remember listening to Lee Moak a few years ago. Yes, I know he’s not a fan of a few wingnuts. But he was pragmatic and we did make more coin and recovered faster than any other legacy carrier union at the time.
His point was that if a union asks for an amount that is unreasonable - then management laughs. And we go nowhere. They deal in costs and numbers - and reality. It’s one thing to push the edge - we should - but it’s another to look ridiculous. Essentially unprofessional and uneducated.
Now I don’t know what we are asking. But it appears to be so ridiculous that the MEC is too embarrassed to tell us, we who pay them, what we are asking. What is it? Tell me and if it is not insane I will back you to the hilt. But don’t tell me to trust you and be unified and then treat us like mushrooms.
Pilot costs increased by what, 30% last time? We asked for 40% over three years (they told us) and we got 30% over four years. A compromise. But if we’re asking for 100% this time ...... I hope it’s a rumor that will be quelled with more information to us.
And yes, it’s a given the company always wants to give us zero. Or negative. Clearly this time they’ll have to fork over more money. What’s the surprise there? The trick is to be able to get a lot of money by being able to negotiate.
So the MEC needs to get us completely on their side with some information. Unity comes with information.
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In the beginning I agreed with LM. The "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" philosophy was the way to go after BK, IMO. The problem, as I see it, began when Dalpa started bending over backwards for the Company but there wasn't any reciprocation (or very little so as to be negligible). In past MEC's I think this attitude became rampant. That's where I run into a problem.
It only appears ridiculous to you because you are looking at it from only one side of the equation. I guess we were ridiculous when C2K was negotiated too and we were asked by the Union to clean out our lockers. Did we know the positions of both sides then? How did pilots long ago achieve what they did? Thru resolve and unity.
Unity comes with every one of us being on the same page. Information about table positions is all well and good but it doesn't lead to Unity. Unity is a state of mind. According to Vocabulary.com Unity is the quality of being United into one. To get the best deal we can we must be united. At this point it doesn't really matter what our ask is. The Union has put it forward and the Company has failed to respond. The question is: Are you going to side with the Company or the Union? It's a one or the other question with no in-between. Are you gonna side with the Company if you feel our ask is out to lunch? If you don't like what the Union is doing then email/talk to your Reps. Undermining the Negotiations by making SM posts saying how ridiculous our table position is when you haven't seen either it or the Companys is ridiculous in my book.
Denny