Originally Posted by
captnate702
this is where you are dead wrong and it’s difficult to hear: “we have waited way too long to not get a great deal.”
I get that sentiment but it is naive and uninformed. Waiting this long has only DECREASED our leverage and ensured that we will vote on an eventual TA that is below legacy standard. Why? Because we have lost all leverage.
we lost political leverage when Trump won and even more with the IBT lawyer Deidre quitting the NMB (per her linked in page). In other words, we had a better chance of getting released a year ago than we do today.
we lost market leverage when NK filed bankruptcy. Now NK rates will drag us down with the NMB. Spirit Pilots are getting priority interviews at the legacies. And they are leaving en masse flooding the legacy hiring classes.
Allegiant is “over staffed” per management and their actions speak louder. No hiring classes for over a year. That means there’s no attrition and maybe they really are over staffed.
so what does this mean? It means waiting has gotten a worse deal. We didn’t just lose once in a generation leverage when Andrew was the boss. This current NC and Unterseher have lost us enormous leverage as well. They thought Deidre at the NMB, Trump or Kamala would save us politically. They didn’t see the NK reality and how that would screw our leverage when hiring picked by the legacies picked back up or the concessions NK would vote in.
JR, Unterseher, Josh, smiles, etc. they will quickly throw AR under the bus and say he screwed our leverage, but they have killed our leverage just as much if not more than AR did.
You hit the nail on the head with your post. I also spoke to AR, and after him with the current involved about my concern about the unpredictables/variable. Just like Robles, they never saw past their own myopic noses. Just like you still read on the FB group, some still want to hold on to attrition helping, the NMB icing the company, hell some have even insisted that scaring people of coming to G4 can get us leverage. We not only lost it, but further gave away by stubbornly throwing hail mary attempts to get to an impasse.
AR should've tried to negotiate hard and lock something good down back in 2022 before mediation. He couldn't, then came GU and his gang and they just squandered any chance by putting all their eggs in one basket. Now they're unhappy with the current mediator. 3 mediators, no real progress, that tells you the problem wasn't the NMB.