If you want to get "much much more," you need to be doing the work. SWAPA won't deliver something to the pilot group that the pilot group isn't able to provide the leverage for. To provide the leverage to SWAPA to get "much much more," you need to figure out how this game works. You then need to be educating the guys you fly with, who have almost universally been misinformed on how the game needs to be played.

This game is a lot like nuclear deterrence. To have a credible nuclear deterrent threat that keeps the peace we need to have a massive nuclear arsenal that is fully operational at all times and has the ability to annihilate the other side at a moment's notice. Peace through strength, right? 99.99% of pilots believe that when it comes to national defense. But, when it comes down to it, probably less than 50% of pilots believe in that principle when it comes to preserving the well-being of ourselves, our families, and our profession.

If we all are not willing to pose the credible existential threat to the other side (management) in our negotiations, then we lose. The company walks all over us, as they are currently doing. They do not feel a credible existential threat to their existence. They see the weakness in us. The way we are being treated right now is what we get for being weak both right now in this contract cycle (for example, we filed for mediation at least a year later than we should have) and last contract cycle when we ratified TA2 with a value more than a billion dollars less than The Platform that every member of the BOD signed a letter saying they wouldn't settle for less than.

If you were a corporate executive, you would also take advantage of the weakness exhibited by our pilots in order to return maximum value to your investors and shareholders. That's capitalism.

Most pilots seem to believe in capitalism. Except when it comes to their relationship with their employer. Then, it seems like most pilots believe in a form of socialism: give to the company. Do not claim ownership of our share of the economic success of the corporation.

Bottom line, if you want "much, more more." learn the RLA. That's where our leverage is. You can learn it on your own. You don't need SWAPA to teach you. Just start Googling. A great starting point is John Livingood's RLA site. Read all of the pages there. There are quite a few of them (click the "RLA Nuances" button).

With the RLA, like Delta is doing right now (and has been doing since they filed for mediation in January of 2020), we can leverage the company into acceding to our contractual demands. If you're going to passively wait and see what offer SWAPA will bring you, you will be disappointed. Unfortunately, that is what most pilots do. And even more unfortunately, we will likely get a contract that reflects their lack of commitment. Now is the time to get very, very involved if you want "much, much more."