Sometimes the amount of work you put in doesn't make a difference. As an example during one negotiation the Union put out a memo with pictures.

One was the 2200 pages of documentation in 5 or 6 notebooks explaining why our side should win the baseball pay arbitration. The other was a Manila folder with the Company's 20 Power Point slides.

"We'll obviously win."

Unfortunately the MEC leadership forgot that the Arbitrator doesn't weigh the evidence by throwing it on a scale.

We got Kasherstrated.

 

Kasher was 2005. You've had contracts since then. But now at this point it's like a guy going through his fourth divorce, and keeps talking about how he wouldn't be in this position if his first wife hadn't divorced him. And contract 2013 was "Contract $200/hr" and not contract-fix-what-kasher-lost-us. And who made the pensions go away and the whole rebalance and DC-only pilot plan? Was that Kasher? Forced by a judge? Or, pilots voted it away? You don't have to answer.

 

...and we just got married to it/him/her/whatever. Point is, does it matter now shy? Nope. What matters is that we come together as one solid unified voice and get the contract we deserve. Will we get it? If we can stay unified I am confident we will. And it will be a battle. But if we keep doing these finger pointing posts on how Legacy Alaska LET this happen, then we are doomed. We need to remember what happened so it never happens again, but we also need to accept our new family not as step brothers but as blood brothers. Anything less is an automatic victory for management.

 

Shy and Flyin, both of your points are critical to our collective future.
The history lesson and the way forward. Examining our history and learning from it should be the underpinnings of the road ahead.
The obstacles that we face are significant.
The largest,by a substantial margin, is us and by that I mean the original Alaska pilot group. 70 plus percent of us place a much higher value on our residential zip code than we do a collective bargaining ageeement that represents our contribution to Alaska Airlines inc.. To live within an hour of pdx/sea and to a lesser extent anc/lax is the ruler that we measure the value of our contract with. By any measure that has placed us 7th or 8th amongst our peers.
This obvious self-depreciation has led the executives of this company to not only view us with comtempt but to incorporate this “gift” from us into their business plan. Think “Secret Sauce”... Ben Minicucci was genuine when he testified to that end in the Arbitration hearing.
So here we are. JCBA negotiations were an absolute failure on our part. Alaska Airlines is facing significant competive pressure coupled with rising fuel costs. Profits will likely stay flat or turn to losses over the next couple of years. The unity that the two groups built during JCBA negotiations was predictably damaged during SLI negotiations. What remains of it will be finished off in 2 weeks.
We are facing a well scripted management group that spends many millions on the best, most skilled, anti-labor law firms in the country. They have been “negotiating”with us since the ink dried on “contract 200”. They have the best playbook in the industry and will be negotiating in the most favorable competitive and economic conditions for a zero-net gain contract. 2020 will turn into 2022 in the blink of an eye.
Personally I see this growing storm as an opportunity. As a blood-fest. As an opportunity to rid ourselves of the poison that has prevented contractual gains in my 19 plus years here. As an opportunity to finally have union leadership and more importantly union membership that places contractual quality and integrity well above zip-code preference.
If we need to hoist the old “skull and cross bones”, sharpen our knives and “slit some throats” to get it done the so be it.

 

👆👆👆👆👆THIS!!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Add to that Alaska Airlines is fast running out of qualified candidates that live or want to live within an Alaska base driving radius.

 

+1 Klsytakesit, great post. Agreed and thank you!

 

Before the UAL strike in 1985 the company provided orange bag tags to indicate flight crew luggage that should be put aside the belt loader for loading last and pulled off first from manual cargo pits.

The company also had a computer code of PF and PNF to indicate on its paperwork whether the named pilot was Pilot Flying or Pilot Not Flying for this particular flight.

Somebody made orange stickers with PNF in bold letters. These to be prominently displayed wherever – luggage, uniform coat lapels, cockpit, uniform hat (normal back then) and even bathroom stalls.

Yes, the company saw these, but the real audience was your fellow pilot. You were making a show of support for possible strike action and most importantly, support of your fellow pilots.

 

Exactly. It’s a show of unity. Before the transition from the gray VX uniform to the white shirts, I saw that orange lanyard and thought, with all our differences of opinions, we’re really on the same team and fighting the same fight. Unfortunately, some guys will wear the orange on a Monday and pick up a premium trip on a Tuesday. Helll, some guys will wear the orange WHILE flying a picked up trip.