Originally Posted by
golfandfly
You can only take responsibly for your vote. I voted no. Of course the TA was a big topic of conversation during this time.
We were promised by the union that there would be no sales job, the merits would speak for themselves. As usual, this wasn’t the case. We can plead our cases to other pilots, but we just don’t have the pulpit the union has. They used scare tactics like.. it could be years before we get a new TA; we got every nickel possible; we won because we kept our pension and didn’t go wholesale PBS, etc. I believe it was a 57-43 TA approval, but I have no doubt they swayed enough pilots to get over 50%.
Regardless, you win some and lose some. The majority voted yes and that’s that. I’d say many of those “yes” voters regret their decision now. To me, it was a great time to fight for retirement benefits. Hopefully, we have the fortitude to do so this time.
Anyway, we have a survey in a few days and we all have our opportunity to give our thoughts. Let’s see how it shakes out and hopefully we’ll unify no matter which direction we go.
I'm personally convinced that a large part of that 57%-43% difference, was the special benefit for those people of a certain age at date of signing. This was a six year contract, with many years to be added to that during the next round of upcoming negotiations, that many of those people (over the age of 54 at the time) would retire under and just couldn't resist. They got theirs and all the negative repercussions and after effects of Contract 2015 are not their problem, as they are long gone or will be soon.
That's why I've always been against special carve outs for certain groups in these contracts - better that it is all for one and one for all. It is the company's job to shoot for a 50% plus one contract and that is exactly what they did. I certainly don't expect my MEC to do the same.