The way I see it, we aren’t negotiating our contract, we are setting the price we are charging management to raise first year pay until we actually finish negotiating the CBA. These won’t be final rates, but it may help with recruitment and it takes the sting of inflation off the rest of us

Management has stipulated attrition is a problem, so there is a time issue, which is why both sides agreed to a narrow focus of only five issues. So what you have to decide is what your price is to allow first year pay to be increased. If it’s Alaska + $1 fine, if it’s a certain percentage fine, the point is that it’s an interim raise while the real CBA is hashed out, which can take years.

It’s like eating your fries while they are hot after leaving the drive thru, you are still going to eat the whole burger when you get home.