Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
No I do not think that it is anyone's plan to go in and start off that way. It will assure you at least four to five years at the table. What we have is an opener depends on what happens at UAUA, and AMR before we open. You cannot make an assumption over 12 months out with so many variables in the air.
In regard to walking in and all of a sudden stopping collective engagement off the bat. Well if that is the plan, why the heck would we even be working on engaging the other side? We might as well just take pot shots every day for nothing more than a good laugh or two. I know that if the tables were turned that is one sure fire way to get me to be quite stubborn in a contractually mandated negotiation.
That whole idea fails logic to me.
As for what we will ask or what you think the min will be. Do not presuppose an outcome, not yet.
Several problems with what you are advocating:
1. The math just doesn't work. If our goal is restoration, small increases every 3 or 4 years just doesn't get us there. It would be completely different if we weren't starting from such a deep hole and there was no such thing as inflation. But it is what it is, and the math doesn't work. Either restoration is our goal or it is not. From the posture of this MEC and the lack of any stated objective with regards to this, it appears that our goal is something significantly short of restoration.
2. If our goal is restoration, then we have no clear mission stated. It's management 101 stuff. You cannot have success as a company or organization without a clearly stated, compelling mission statement around which your people can rally and focus their efforts.
3. We can be assertive, respectful, professional, and firm without being abrasive and combative. I don't think anyone is advocating all out nuclear war against management. (I'm certainly not.) That is a good way to screw up a company... our company! But we have sent so many wrong signals with regards to our intentions over the past several years. Management's expectations are not anywhere near where they need to be if we are to make any significant progress towards restoration and neither are the expectations of our pilot group in general. In the war of perception and expectations, they have us exactly where they want us... defeated from the start.
4. Our "relationship" with management appears to be a sham. The mutual respect is not there... as evidenced by the fact that they are perfectly happy to have us suffer along with BK/emergency wages 5 years after the company is out of BK and now making record profits. I think "proactive engagement" is absolutely the way things should be, but it takes respect on both sides. It has to be used in an appropriate circumstance. Without that mutual respect, then one side just gets taken advantage of.