Originally Posted by
4V14T0R
Not true. Neither United or AA filed for mediation. AA did their strike vote without any threat of an actual strike on the horizon, because they weren't in mediation. We did ours in the correct order, HOWEVER (and this is my only real SWAPA gripe), we should have filed for mediation much sooner. At least a year sooner (caveat, maybe there's a reason they didn't).
Started negotiating March 2020 and shortly paused it due to Rona. Started back up in 2021 and filed for mediation in Sept 2022. I can see why they didn’t immediately file as the Rona recovery was strong but long term effects of losing tons of $$$ were unknown. Maybe they thought market forces (AK/DL) would force SWA’s hand faster and then filed when it didn’t.
I would’ve preferred filing faster but what’s done is done. UAL and AA got deals without mediators so you never know what’ll finally trigger mgt to get something done.