Originally Posted by oldmako

A much likelier scenario would be management merely setting the table for furloughs. Something will occur, a significant geopolitical event, economic upheaval, a merger, take your pic. Something will impact earnings and future projections and bookings. A percentage of the pilots will micturate themselves and bleat incessantly on the forums. They will offer up idiotic solutions to solve someone else's problem. The sky will be falling and by golly, "we gotta save our jobs and the airline!" I've seen this show and it sucks. It first ran on the PanAm channel. Then reruns were shown on the TWA channel, the Eastern channel, the CAL channel, the USAir channel, the UAL channel, the AAL channel, etc etc etc.

While it's running, management will carefully and artfully manage the employee group's "expectations" until they decide the time is right to reach deeply into their wallets. Exactly as Spreyregan admitted they did on Frontline during United's bankruptcy. And guys like GCrap will be the first in line to help. They'll write emails to the CEO and even tell him how much they're willing to give up. The ToddSquad actually managed to memorialize this template with the LOA. An LOA that over 40 percent of the group thought was a dumb idea. An LOA that intentionally separated the membership into thirds and then played them off one another. Some claim that the LOA eviscerated the union's ability to negotiate an industry-leading contract. Seems plausible considering what they eventually rolled out, years late. The camels' feces are now ankle-deep in the tent.

Dubinski was exactly right. He told us that sometimes pilots need their union to stand firmly in their way in order to protect their contract. None of this is new. Yet there are those who insist that it's all new and that a profound paradigm shift has occurred. I submit that reasonable and proper change happened when the pilots rejected the recent TA by a huge margin and then booted leadership out the door. Yay team!