Originally Posted by
NuGuy
Heyas Sailing,
You're probably right. If you go back to look at the "merger era" L&G@D" thread, there were some wild hyperbole about pay raises, better flying, who has more money, bigger airplanes and whatnot, and, really, none of that played into the final equation.
The arbitrators don't deal with "subjective", and they mostly won't deal with emphemeral contracts since that can always change. And they LOVE precedent, because that means zero risk for them.
My bet is close to what Fish said. Since a good portion of the guys hired before 94 are getting close to retirement, I'd bet that after 5 years, the SWA list looks like a relative solution anyway.
Nu
Go read the award again. Some of those things were accounted in the award and some weren't. The problem with SLI discussions is that each side only sees their own glories and the other side's faults. When that happens each side gets unrealistic expectations which complicates the situation when the final award is issued. In this case there are equities on both sides. Certainly if SWA first officers think they are going to run into Airtran captain seats, they are sorely mistaken and they we will not be happy when the award comes out.