It’s important to me that we preserve the notion that even if a contract isn’t signed until after you’ve left/retired, you’ll get your back pay. That association unity is what will keep us from unnecessarily fracturing our vote - at least any more than 15,000 pilots already fracture.

I’ll gladly take a smaller retro check than a larger signing bonus if the former ensures everyone who worked after the amendable date is back-payed appropriately. The company would love to lock in the 2019 rate labor costs they got away with for all the high-earning retirees, and instead pay pennies on the dollar to the 1-5 year longevity newbies with a signing bonus. None of us should be incentivized to grab what we can with a hold-your-nose yes vote to a crappy TA because that’s the only way to salvage some partial back pay.

Stay strong, advocate for the profession and resist its perpetual erosion…and you’ll eventually get what’s owed to you. That should be the contract that we can all…hang our hat on.