Originally Posted by
Lewbronski
I mostly agree with you. The only thing is that there are SO many battles to fight that, speaking for myself, I have driven myself, and probably others, crazy trying to fight too many of them. This place is not going to change culturally in any significant way for a very long time.
I could spend all of my time, and I have done so for periods in the past, trying to take a stand, but it is genuinely pointless. It’s way too stressful and crazy-making.
It’s like the little Dutch boy trying to plug 10,000 leaks in the dike with ten fingers and ten toes. It’s like a zombie movie - no matter how many zombies get killed, they just mindlessly and relentlessly keep coming.
Take the RLA, for example. As anyone who has spent any time here knows, that’s kind of my topic. It’s so utterly clear to me that we could leverage the RLA to our benefit. But the culture here is simply shut off to the idea. No matter how much evidence is provided to contradict the myths that prevail about the RLA, our pilots simply don’t want to believe it. It’s just not something that’s going to change. It’s like trying to convince a flat-earther to sail past the horizon. And that’s just how it is here in a bazillion other ways. It’s frustrating but fighting it is just tilting at windmills.
You’re absolutely correct. I try to “Zen out” as much as possible but lately it’s been a challenge. When that doesn’t work I revert to 5th & 20th mentality. That seems to be mostly effective but when a distressed pax confronts you in the terminal or the jetway about how SWA screwed their lives with the poor excuse of an operation that we have, well you can’t help but feel some empathy for them.
As for the RLA, because of my past union roles I am very well versed in it. I’ve recently inquired into why we haven’t filed for mediation and the impression that I get is SWAPA is just hoping the Kompany will come to the table because of market forces. That and they’re waiting for the Legacies to go first and set the bar that we can then piggyback.