Let’s chair-fly this, hypothetically of course

Put yourself in their shoes. They are not going to fold like a cheap card table under your transparency, resolve, and aptitude. They have resolve and aptitude as well. They will use every play from their playbook. Those plays have worked in the past. If it’s not broken, why fix it? They have to try. They’d be remiss if they did not. They’d be shirking their responsibility if they didn't fight tooth and nail like the cheap bastages that they are. The unfortunate reality for them is that there is now a pilot shortage and they have failed to acknowledge and come to grips with the new reality. Their old cheapskate model no longer works is this environment. They just haven’t accepted the new reality.

None the less, the CFO will be sitting at the table. It’ll be a continued attempt at quid pro quo.

In the end, they’ll tell you here’s x-number of dollar$ and they cannot afford a penny more. They won’t care how you divide it up amongst yourselves or amongst the sections of the contract. They’ll push it across the table. What happens next is up to your negotiator(s) which serve at the behest of your MEC.

Alaska could also wait until the 11th hour and comeback with a TA, take it or leave it, their last and final offer, good only until midnight.

They will talk of growth and upgrades. They will task your Chief Pilot, Captain Nepotism, to sell their TA to your pilots. If the TA is voted down, he loses his job. He’ll be the next scapegoat. He’ll get some cushy lateral move or he’ll go back to the line to spend “more time with his family” or “doing what he loves, flying the line.”

see. Kotz is not the only prognosticator