A lot of folks talk about voting No...
But then what? This is not a contract negotiation, we cannot send the proposal back for revision, and we cannot strike if all else fails. Vote No, and management will just go away and re-address the issue in 2009...maybe. That is probably what management WANTS...as meager as the proposal is, it still amounts to tens (or maybe hundreds ?) of millions to the pilot group as a whole.
Voting No out of spite or to protest is still leaving tens of millions on the table. Basically we get what they offer...why not take it?
First year CA pay is meaningless...almost nobody completes upgrade training under one year, a few do it under two years.
I can think of only one reason the company might want to pass this proposal: They are going to raise first year pay anyway...if we approve it in a vote then the first year raise uses up some of our "negotiating" currency. If we vote no, and they raise first year unilaterally (they will) then they can't really count that against us...but who knows when pay will be re-addressed?
We don't have collective bargaining...CB tactics won't do anything for us.