Originally Posted by
e6bpilot
We would be idiots to start the mediation clock again and settle our contract before everyone else...again.
It's our turn to not go first in pattern bargaining. I am fine with our unions current approach to negotiations. We have the smart people with the data, the cunning, and the will to carry this out. The company has a former SWAPA political hack that is in a traditionally expendable job position who will almost certainly go spend more time with his family within the next couple of years.
Wind your watch, collect another day of retro pay, and trust the people that SWAPA has doing this job.
If we entered mediation today, it would be years before the company would feel any real pressure that results from the mediation timer having started. A mediator won’t even consider declaring an impasse for at least two to three years, and likely longer than that after entering mediation. However, every day that we delay entering mediation delays that years-in-the-future endpoint, and the leverage that builds in anticipation of it, from arriving. If we start the timer, though, the company knows what is in the offing and that their time is limited.
Also, to your point about not going first: if, several years after we enter mediation, an impasse were to be declared, we do not have to go on strike after the 30-day cooling off period and possible PEB conclude. We could continue to negotiate while we wait for the other guys to wrap up their agreements. The only risk we would take is that the company locks us out in the midst of a historic pilot shortage.