Originally Posted by
REF 5
Leverage is best used in what the company is doing. Dividend distributions, stock grants to the board and senior executives. That’s where leverage works in the pilot group in the form of education. Aka, they pay themselves but they can’t be bothered to pay us. This also works well in mediation when the company formally puts compensation on the table.
Seems like you guys are more concerned about the pilot group then management. Management is the ones that caused the meltdown, has stalled negotiations, abuses the contract, creating very dense trips to where you can’t do anything, JA on top of JA.
You have to hammer what management is doing. RLA will take us to a conclusion when or if we get a deal. It’s much easier to sit next to a guy and discuss what improvements need to be made and then back it up with what management is currently doing. Explain to the guy next to you that if you want a contract sooner rather than later you must for vote yes on SAV is a lot easier than you think. Trip by trip and pilot by pilot. Their are times when the job is busy but their are down times when the flight deck is not. That’s a good time to discuss the SAV and improvements that are necessary to get it ratified. Every guy I have flown with has had great opinions on what is important to them in a AIP. Steer them towards SWAPA’s FlightPlan 2020 because that’s what the NC is negotiating on. Almost all of them are in favor of a SAV. Believe it or not their are many at SWA that have already been through multiple SAV’s and some have actually walked. Know your audience. A guy who only has less than ten years vs a guy who has twenty have different want’s. Education on the misdeeds of management with the pilots whether your junior or senior is universal. The best unifier is bad management. Work wonders.
Not sure what you mean when you say, “Leverage is best used in what the company is doing.” You seem to me to be suggesting that dissatisfaction with management produces leverage.
If that’s what you’re saying, I don’t look at it that way. Dissatisfaction with management can be harnessed to harden a labor group’s resolve to leverage the credible threat of a legal strike. But I don’t think dissatisfaction with management by itself is really a form of leverage.
We’re all still showing up for work even though many of us are very dissatisfied with management and their antics (millions upon millions in bonuses splashed around the C-suite while slashing PS?).
When these guys are staring down the barrel of a legal strike and all the loss of revenue that entails, then they will care. A SAV is a big step toward credibly posing that threat but there will still be a ton of resolve this pilot group will need to demonstrate until we maximize our leverage as we enter into a cooling off period and a PEB.
Until then, nothing much has fazed them. Yes, let’s allow our disappointment and dissatisfaction with management fuel our walk toward maximizing our leverage via the RLA. But I still want to get paid and I still want better work rules and benefits regardless of how nice management is and regardless of how much they say they love me.