I am fascinated by the opinions that come out for and against threads like this. As one who has a strong opinion I have taken a few insults. The insults seem to be stronger when I have hit a nerve. My goal is to encourage conversation and thought. The reasons I will defend my positions is simple, I have done the math and studied the current conditions, as well as looked towards the future and can see where the future is going.

I simple state I want all pilots to be treated professionally and compensated fairly. This means as the company grows, there should be more support for the pilots, not less. Having the same number of support personnel in the expense report group means pilots are having to do more, and that is not being treated professionally. Having our trips being more complicated and loosing soft parameters which protected us from fatigue is again less professional. And flying those pairing for less compensation is not fair. Even with example after example where we are treated less professionally and compensated less fairly, watching the pilot group remain mostly unengaged is frightening. We are headed down the same path as contract '15. The MEC, the officers and the Negotiating team are all using the same vague language as '15. How is that going to work? No, the pilots need and should demand facts. Once a position is tabled, why hide it from the membership? There is only one reason I can think of, concerns of failing to achieve.

So how do we assure the MEC we understand that our ask will only be achievable with our strong support, and the only way to get that support is to know what we are fighting for at the table. So I say now is the time for change. I am not asking for the MEC to tell us the table position, what I am saying is they must tell us they will settle for nothing less than best value for all pilots. That includes our A-plan. Our position should be to improve our A-plan to get back to parody with the 99 contract or better. How they get there should have been up to the MEC, but that is for another thread. The fact that we might not be asking for enough to get back to parody with 99 is concerning. And the fact the MEC does not want to tell us about our position concerns a lot of us. These wounds are self inflicted by the MEC in whole. Looking towards the past, contract 06 was the most transparent contract effort we have had. No that group did not share everything, but they did share enough to make us comfortable enough to rally around them. That is the benchmark. Not the 15 model. Things have changed. We demand more information at our fingertips. Contract negotiations are no exception. Demand more information from our reps or prepare for disappointment either with a failed attempt, or worse a substandard contract that gets approved by 50% plus one or two.

So here are my numbers again. $402/hour WBCR plus real 3-4 % improvements annually, $460K FAE using the current formula, and six to eight improvements to quality of like issues. Get in, get out. My numbers have the math behind them.

Contract surveys: Did they inspire you? I must say they did not inspire me. They were written to get the answers they wanted. Yes, that statement will most likely receive insults, but it shouldn't. It is true. I fought against the questions, but debate was stifled. The extra questions I wanted added were rejected. They would have brought clarity as to how we wanted our A-plan improved. Think about that for a minute. Who does not want clarity of the collective?

So I'll keep fighting for professional treatment and fair compensation. Anything less just simply will not do.

Apathy. This is the real unspoken issue. Some like the fact that most of the pilots are unengaged, it makes their job easier. I have seen firsthand just how damaging apathy can be. Please get involved. Whether you agree with me or not, the only way we get the contract we truly deserve is by getting involved. No one can say "they did not know" this time around. Get involved, or don't complain about the contract others chose for you. Six years of listening to issues on the crewbus can not be repeated. If it is, we have only ourselves to blame.