"Went to the union meeting today in Memphis to hear the latest on the TA. Its technically not a roadshow I guess because they haven't had enough time to put togther a real road show yet. Some very interesting info though, and I urge everyone to get to one of these meetings/road shows if you can. There is nothing like getting the details on the negotiations right from the horses mouth.

Dave Webb said that there would be no job aide in the first couple of weeks to explain the changes and no plain language explanations. This was a conscientious decision because they want us to read the contract. Evidently the contract enforcement folks get several calls a day with questions that a simple reading of the contract would answer. They want us to read the actual contract because that is what we are voting on, not a bunch of bullets or explanations.

Bob C went over some good info. Overall, he seemed amazed that we were able to get the gains that we did. The union estimates that the value of the deal offered by the company to the Commercial Appeal on Apr 29 was worth about $443M for the 4 year deal (CY 2004 dollars). They also estimate that the TA has about $1B (CY 2007 dollars, a slight apples to oranges but still worth noting) in improvements over the 4 years.

Biggest changes are in the work rules, the new rig and the over 8 hour block provisions will really multiply real earnings improvements for the international folks.

Bonus was worth 90 Mil, but the company wanted to only pay half up front. Union said add interest then, and boom it went up to 95. Union also wanted it to be pensionable, boom it went up to 103M. Apparently the union decided how it would be divided up. They gave up a little on the A380 rates and the international override and included 737 and 757 in the narrow body pay scales to get the bonus done.

Retirement: he estimated 40 M in improvements. The B plan hike occured on the last day of negotiations.

Medical: we got what we were asking for, est $30 Mil improvement. HRAs for those 53 and older, a 43M trust fund for post medicare retirement folks. Rates fixed for the life of the contract, total lifetime benefit cap raised to 3 Mil per pilot.

Scope: Huge deal, cornerstone issue. He said be sure to really read Section 1. We did well there.

Training: ALPA training standard.

Life Ins: increase in amount of company funded life insurance with a opt out option to reduce tax implications if so inclined.

Anyway, not to steal too much of their thunder, but I was very impressed with the presentation. There were a lot of questions about the grid penalties and all that but they don't have too many answers on that yet, we have to wait and see how it pans out. Basically the company will have to pay for the numerous revisions on the international trips.

Oh yeah, on the agency shop, they did mention that not including the grandfather clause could open up the company and union to lawsuits about changing the conditions of employment (just as you said Purpled), so that answered my biggest question.

FJ"