if you've never seen it, the analysts come in and back your people up the whole way. You might be shocked how much pro's are in the process helping/educating/ and just running numbers. If you get down to the wire and there are serious negotiations daily, you'll just see them in the office furiously running pivot tables and costing, then briefing the team when they get back. Honestly, when your negotiators are really hitting on all cylinders its when they have this wealth of knowledge to draw on from the pros.

Having true pro's might be better but- my limited experience- I've seen some pretty great deals from pilots who have the information from months of negotiating.

Honestly, theres probably lots of solutions, I'm just more trusting of the stuff i see work. I dont know how to say this without sounding terse, but the pilots here I've run across have a lot or competing visions and a lot of reactionary takes compared to other pilot groups ive been a part of. There are times we seem to act a little like a mob- for lack of a better term. Certainly the voting down of TA1 was very wise from the outside looking in. I'm not sure if it was wisdom or reactionary luck that got us there.

Hoping for the best though.