Originally Posted by
Liberty
This is my first airline but I’m catching on to the negotiating strategy and it’s painful. We continually get punched in the nose until we negotiate that we can’t be punched in the nose. Then we’re continually punched in the ear until we negotiate that we can’t be punched in the ear. Then we’re continuously punched in the eye until we negotiate that we can’t be punched in the eye anymore.
It gets really bad at contract time. then we start to get punched and kicked in five places but union “negotiating capital” says we can only negotiate the pain to stop in 2-3 places.
Actually this is very normal. Management will always exploit a provision if they can/need to. In this case, displacements came out of nowhere and here we are. We are half way through the cycle already and have filed a bunch of grievances. Thats normal. That's never not happened. It's a business and mangement treats the CBA as such. That will always be the case. Personally I don't think vacancy/displacements will be a must change because its going to change regardless when a new airplane appears. It will change that whole section just by virtue of training costs and movements. So flexing bases on a monthly basis maybe something that will dramatically decrease or maybe even be mute. Their are many ways to skin that cat in the vacancy section. No negotiating capital required. SWAPA will look at others to see what will fit here. Other than the Lance program, this section really has never been something the collective have cared about. Now it reared it's ugly head. BJ and the whole industry will tell you they also got punched in the nose when these contracts were implemented. Biggest labor cost increase in probably two and half decades for the airlines. Some airlines like UAL(FA's) and Frontier(Pilots) are trying hard to suppress it but it will come to a head. Thats the cost doing business. We witnessed the best bargaining cycle in our careers. All the stars lined up for that. By the time we get to section 6, other will be deep in theirs. So we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling our's will be more interesting in this go around. As AW has stated, the next phase will be most consequential for the company, which means SWAPA will have to be involved to make it happen and we as whole will have to vote on it.