With respect to knowing these things take time, I don’t believe that has any bearing here. We’re on extension number two, and it’s already been five months since starting negotiations. The seniority list has stopped growing, people are already leaving, but that’s actually benefitted the company in the short term. The landscape of the industry (FFD model) looks drastically different than it did in 2015 at the time of the last signing. This place is still treated like a springboard instead of a feasible destination for some. I don’t think anyone with ambition would want to stay at a regional for life, but certain personal reasons could make it compelling to do so to no fault of that person, and that’s okay. Bleeding pilots for a few months might make the company meet in the middle of some of these issues, and they haven’t even reached the point of discussing the hard stuff yet like scheduling. My bet is that one alone will be a sticking point because of the insanity currently needing to be fixed. Then there’s pay. Another few months in that one. It’s also becoming increasingly apparent that management doesn’t seem to care about money with the myriad things they’ve been offered as stop gaps to help in the short term. Still offering 300% might be nice as a new captain, but most captains are tired of working that extra time each month too. Anticipating the length of time the contract negotiations will take is of little regard to extending the LOA indefinitely, which is what is being done. I’ll always concede that good faith negotiating is absolutely critical when it can be done, but the union offered to open section six early and the company declined. Knowing the new contracts that had just come out like Endeavor and Republic, and knowing what was brewing with the CA shortage here, that should have been enough reason to start thing up early. Instead, they declined that option. A new contract might make it bearable for people to wait it out for their first choice final landing spot in a Delta or United and easier to swallow for DEC’s coming over and not getting totally abused by scheduling. Instead, people are leaving in droves for F9 and other LCC/ULCC’s. The union keeps throwing the company a bone and getting noting back. The only winners were 24+ month CA’s that got a little extra green quarterly, but I’d much rather see them make what they deserve via pay scales. I think they deserve it, especially the people that have been here for a while.