Originally Posted by strfyr51
No JCBA? No SLI? If competent People sit across from you?? They might very well MOP the FLOOR with your Negotiators. ALPA is Not and Hasn't been a real force in recent years. It's common KNOWLEGE that ALPA has many "internal issues". (Like USAir as an example.)
Let's see. So you are saying that ALPA is at fault because we don't have a JCBA yet? You are aware the company wanted a JCBA soon after October 1st, but by their own admission couldn't actually fully negotiate a contract until at least 10/1 because of anti-trust reasons related to separate companies. Only in November did the union get a full contract proposal from the company which they are working on responding to shortly. Negotiators from both sides (management and joint ALPA) have been meeting for weeks at a time every month since July to work on this thing. It is not for a lack of trying and certainly the company has admitted it is now able to more fully engage in the process since the merger legally closed.
Our SLI is tied to the JCBA. While work may go on related to the SLI, the SLI will not be completed until there is a ratified JCBA first. This was done by design to prevent the very USAirways situation you accuse ALPA of being responsible for.
I will argue that ALPA is not responsible for the USAirways-America West fiasco. I know Easties will come on here and vehemently disagree, but they accused ALPA of not representing them fairly. I find this argument a total crock. I see it as ALPA staying neutral during that merger
The East pilots went to ALPA national over the whole arbitration ruling saying that it needed to be investigated and over turned. The investigation centered on ALPA merger policy and were steps followed correctly in that policy to get to the arbitrator's decision. When all was said and done, ALPA National said both sides were given the policy and the tools. Both sides followed the policies and no one deviated from them. As such, both sides agreed to binding arbitration (always a risk for one or both groups). ALPA National had no choice but to say they couldn't over turn the decision because their own policy had been followed. To do so, the America West pilots would have had a case to make, in court, that National did not represent the West pilots as outlined in the merger policy.
The USAirways debacle was and is of the East pilots' making. The merger policy worked for them until the didn't like the outcome and came up with a new definition of the word "binding." Yes, there have been massages to the policy since that seniority ruling, but to lay the blame on ALPA for that is wrong, IMHO.