Sorry, guys, career expectations for the old US Airways were pushing a broom at Home Depot right about now. That's pretty blunt, and I don't take any satisfaction in saying it, but if you guys think that anything other than relative seniority is fair then you are smoking crack. This was an aquisition, not a merger, read the SEC disclosures. Parker is brilliant at saying one thing to the employees and another to Wall Street but he can't lie to the Feds - that's jail time if he does. America West is the aquiring carrier. It's money our management team raised that saved the East operation.
Yes, you have been hit with a lot of cuts but at least you were on top as far as pay and benefits in the past. We sacrificed for 22 years to get the company where it is today, only to see our CEO throw our careers onto the table to gamble away at the Big Airline Game. We didn't sit at pay parity with Delta or United or any other carrier until they all fell down to our level. Well, howdy, boys and girls, welcome to the cellar. And the best joke of all is that we made some good gains our last contract and we were to start Section 6 negotiations this month, just when our airline would have been making money. Now we have to drag the East contract up to our level just to get parity for both sides. Don't think that Glass isn't costing out that $13/hr pay raise for 737 and Bus drivers. And hey, when you get that $35000 per year from the government when you retire just remember that that is 35k per year more that I will have. Yeah, it sucks to lose most of your retirement but it sucks more to never have had it at all.
And I see that the PHL LEC is telling you guys not to answer the phone this summer. That's great, go ahead and screw up the operation during peak travel season. Now is not the time to be playing games. You need to make the operation work so that when we are in the END game of negotiations you can turn the screws a little. Don't trip over your dick at the starting line, we have a long way to go.
Whining about what has happened to your airline is like watching a guy blow the rent at the track. It was your choice to bet on that horse and you did so with whatever information you had at the time. But the result is the same - the money is still gone and you can't get it back. Shooting the horse may give you satisfaction for a moment but you'll never get a chance to recoup your money.
I want to see this deal work. I know there are good guys back East and I'm sure most pilots want this to get settled and the airline to grow so we can all get a better contract down the road. But if you think that that is going to happen if you start talking DOH and fences then you are not living in the real world. By the way, our widebodies were much bigger than your widebodies.