Originally Posted by
Judge Smails
It wasn’t nonsense. We were merging with Jetblue, which meant a joint CBA was imminent. The CBA we signed was intended to be a stopgap to put us on better footing until the JCBA was negotiated and completed. That contract was the prize. It was always a risk that the merger would fall through. What wasn’t planned for is the company continuing to hemorrhage cash at an ungodly rate that continues to this day.
The CBA was never about being a stop gap for a more favorable SLI in the merger, which is what we were led to believe.
That CBA was the bare minimum that management had to agree to in hopes of keeping the mass exodus at bay, compounded with the dangling of the merger carrot. ALPA played right into it.
Had we asked for more and management said take a hike, there wouldn't have been an airline left to merge with due to the wave of our CAs punching out (which would have been most of us, but two years ago instead of now).
Anyway, it is what it is and we didn't know what we didn't know.
Management giving in so easily to our last TA, which is what happened, should have been a red flag.