Originally Posted by
JoeMerchant
I know Seth...In 1998, we went to Randy Babbitt and asked that Seth be removed from our negotiations at ASA as he was more of a hinderance than a help. All he could tell us was that we were asking for too much...After he was removed, we ended up getting more than Seth said a "regional" could get....I'm not surprised you are impressed by Seth.....
Seth assisted in negotiating the most expensive pilot contracts in the history of the profession (NWA '98, UAL '00, DAL '01, etc.). To imply that he's a pushover is absurd.
But I expect nothing less from a founding member of the RJDC. For those DAL pilots who don't know, JoeMerchant was one of the "officers" of the RJDC, the Regional Jet Defense Coalition, whose goal was to stop ALPA from placing limits on RJ outsourcing. In other words, they wanted to eliminate scope and destroy our job security, all so they could take our jobs. Fortunately, ALPA fought back and the pilots who were party to the lawsuit got pennies on the dollar for their legal costs as a settlement.
So, you probably don't want to listen to Joey about ALPA.
Originally Posted by
capncrunch
There are plenty of people in this world that will go to a negotiating table for us and kick tail. The idea that this is the only man for the job is ridiculous.
No one said that he is the only one. He's just one of the best. I actually think Bruce York is probably the best, but outside unions can't contract for his assistance at the bargaining table, because he works for ALPA and not for its subsidiary.
The problem is that you can't just hire any professional negotiator. There are certainly plenty of professional negotiators in the world, but only a small handful know the RLA bargaining process, and an even smaller number have the experience to know how to deal with the NMB to get what we want. The truly experienced ones all work for ALPA and Ford & Harrison. F&H is the management law firm, and they don't contract with unions. So, you're left with ALPA if you want anyone with any decent amount of RLA/NMB experience.