How about this for some thread drift: just saw this on the Majors forum about SWA's brand new TA:



"Straight from the company website...

Fellow pilots,

Last night SWAPA agreed in principle on a new five year contract with the Company through August 31, 2011. This new contract includes the following: stronger scope language as well as codeshare restrictions not previously released including no domestic codeshare, increase in pay rates including retroactive pay, increase in 401K match, improved disability program and streamlined/improved scheduling and work rule language. Additionally we have retained the Lance Captain program and ELITT albeit with changes to current language. Our Negotiating Committee (NC) is continuing to negotiate final language and when that work is completed will present a Tentative Agreement to the BoD for approval. If the BoD approves the new contract it will be sent to the membership for final ratification. I anticipate a BoD meeting in late February or early March to review the TA. Please review my January 15, 2009 Reporting Point Article for a timeline for the ratification process.

I realize every one of you is anxious to know the details of our new contract. However, our NC has much work to do in the next few weeks finalizing language. Once the BoD approves the TA, an in depth executive summary will be released and placed in your Company mailbox along with complete contract language on the SWAPA website. Additional education and communication efforts will also be underway and will be highlighted for the membership. Please refer to the SWAPA website for the most up to date information.

In closing, I want to thank our NC for their hard work through this arduous process. Their dedication to our pilot group has been outstanding. While this process has been unusually long, it has been productive for our pilot group. Your patience and support through this process is to be commended and will be required for a little longer while we conclude the process. Once again, please refer to the SWAPA website for the most current information."




I added the bold since the concept of an in depth executive summary was hotly debated when we were going through our last round of negotiations. Maybe we can learn something from the other guys here, seeing as so much of the hidden money and gems in our current contract seem to be very difficult to find.

Perhaps some commentary and explanations would help us make a better decision on our next TA and contract. I think that it would be better to have both a summary and explanation document to review in addition to the actual contract language.

Sounds like SWAPA did a pretty nice job negotiating this TA with wage increases and even retro pay. Maybe ALPA could get some help from these guys, who also helped bring about the age change (which I was totally against, but that is neither here nor there). They must have a pretty good NC.