Originally Posted by
Salukidawg
I also would like to thank Lew for educating this group. All of his points about the RLA are based in fact and well researched. With that said, I'm planning on attending a roadshow and asking questions directly to the guys that were in the room during the entire process to understand the why of things that were either achieved or not in this contract. Unfortunately we're paying for the sins of past contracts that didn't address a lot of the industry standard items that we are just now getting around to addressing. We screwed up as a union by not getting a lot of these items in previous contracts and are now in the unenviable position of having to play catch up. It's for that reason that I will probably be a reluctant yes voter while holding my nose. The risks of turning this down with everything that's going on in the world is too great a risk vs reward for me. Others may disagree, but that's how I view this contract and I've voted no on every contract that SWAPA has sent out over my 18 years here. Merry Christmas.
Good perspective. At the very least, the second there is any dragging in the next negotiating cycle, filling for mediation and walking the RLA path will probably be easier to navigate toward a better TA. We're all re-learning previous lessons of airlines/TAs past and hopefully we're better positioned next round.
As an aside, I do find it hard to envision a sympathetic NMB, public, or other unionized workgroup support of us turning this one down. Whether any of that matters to you or not is a different story.