Originally Posted by
mastercraft
I don't deny that AT brings equity to the table. They are a hard-working, prefessional group of pilots who have been beaten down for years. That doesn't greatly change my opinions though.
If their pilots wanted better, they could have left for SWA, or anyone else. In fact, many tried at SWA(think hundreds...literally). Few were accepted. Hundreds of other AT pilots left for CAL, DAL, UPS, FedEx, Cathay, Emarites, etc. The ones who stayed now want in on a big piece of something much bigger than they ever could have reasonably imagined.
While I understand your tendancy to relate this to DAL/NWA, it just isn't an apples to apples comparison. I know some NWA pilots saw considerable raises...but certainly not 75-80%. The vastly superior schedules and number of days off weren't the case either. Not to mention that one surely wasn't four times the size of the other.
Those are all points you can make to the arbitrator. AirTran will make their points to the arbitrator also. He will then take everything into consideration and produce a seniority list. There is no way for SW to avoid arbitration. Put your very best people on your SLI committee and hope they do a good job. Now is the time to start looking at past mergers to see what works and how to conduct yourselves in the arbitration process.