Originally Posted by
Lewbronski
For the umpteenth time, labor unions ARE NOT constrained by the pilot group's, the company's, or the mediator's perception of "industry standard." The RLA does not require us to demand rates or any other contractual items that are within X percent or within any other parameter of whatever anyone considers industry standard. That is a myth that harms us as a labor group negotiating under the RLA. You are perpetuating that myth with posts like this.
Like folks from other airlines have pointed out, you are trying to lay the blame for SWAPA failing to attain truly industry-leading rates or retro and various other items on the likes of Delta and Alaska. We are not bound by what they agreed to. Nowhere in the RLA or the RLA case law does such a requirement exist. If we vote to ratify a contract containing substandard terms, that is entirely and 100% on us. We can't point the finger at anyone else. We have the ability to raise the bar.
You can believe the reality that the courts who interpret the RLA have published in black and white about the way the RLA is actually applied in real life or you can put your faith in stories and "stuff" and rumors and opinions you have heard from who knows what sources with who knows what intentions.
Lew, I am so happy to have followed your fabulous education pieces over the course of this negotiation. I only wish more would have. If the union had seen the need to educate the membership as you tried, maybe we would be getting ready to vote on a contract that is truly outstanding. But for some reason they didn't. Airline unionism in modern America is a shell of what it once was. I don't ever see that changing for the better.
As in all aspects of the plugged in, tiktok generation (all ages), we are a fragmented, never-unified group and society. Whoever controls the message, controls the outcome. In this case, management, through careful indoctrination by F&H wins. All the picketing, bluster, and hubris over the cycle means nothing if you won't even use the available weapons to fight the battle. Or even know what they are.
For anyone here blaming Alaska and Delta, they may have settled, but THIS employee group is NEVER going to lead the charge. We never have, and we never will. It's laughable for any of you to blame other pilot groups.
It could be worse I guess. So many here would have had us fighting this from the position of TA1 from the last cycle. At least we have Harvey Milqtoast as our average man, rather than Jeremy Jellyfish. We'll get em next time, eh slugger?