Originally Posted by
WHACKMASTER
FYI, we’ve been in negotiations for 2.5 years at SWA. The kompany used Covid as an excuse to not counter section 3 pay rate proposals for that length of time. So you know what SWAPA just did?! They countered themselves and upped the ask 😂
There’s no reason why an NC can’t update and refresh their asks especially when there’s no mediator involved that you have to worry about not p!ss!ing off.
Don't forget the mediator can act ****ed off. The mediator can lie to the union or to management or to both sides. Their job is to get the dispute settled as expeditiously as possible so that an interruption to commerce is avoided. One of the metrics they report to Congress each year is how many disputes they settled. They are fully authorized and encouraged to employ subterfuge, chaff, and flares in order to get one or both sides to cave so that the NMB gets their job done.
So, if the mediator has to act angry to scare the union into thinking they're going to be "put on ice forever" or some other "blarney" and thereby make the union side more likely to give in, the mediator will do that.
Successful mediators often liberally use blarney (hoomalimali in Hawaiian) as one of their mediation tools. The [NMB] Chairman's statement may well have been a ploy. By inquiring as to the true meaning of such a statement we could well undermine its entire purpose by forcing the [NMB] to admit it was a tactic to spur negotiations.