Yes. He does. We used him. You'd be better off spinning a wheel with different SLI proposals in front of the hearing panel and just claiming that is the one you want to adopt and not doing any witnesses than using the one we used.

Your final briefing would just be a video the the wheel spinning and stopping on that choice.

I find it interesting that the loudest on this thread, created their profiles in April of this year. Nothing like a bit of keyboard courage under a new user name! As for me, MY MEC SPEAKS FOR ME!

The only problem with this philosophy is that if you establish the precedent in SLI negotiations you've let the baseball arbitration camel's nose under the tent.

Companies would love, Love, LOVE baseball arbitration for the rest of your contracts, especially if you've got an NC who doesn't properly prepare.

Hopefully your MEC has the balls to go hammer and tongs against seniority windfall gains.

With those 3 guys as arbitrators all you are going to get is ratio...especially if management puts their thumb on the scale at the outset of hearings....Baseball style can be very heavy handed ala Delta NWA

Oh, we will grow like crazy, how does 85 EMB-175 sound?

BOHICA

I think the disparity in the AWA/US Air merger was also very large. No doubt the disparities make for a much more painful process.

Guys, honest question just out of curiosity...

Is there any chance the certificates could be kept separate and have AS just operate both airlines independently, without integration?

Certainly, setting up a classic whipsaw. Its not past AS management to do that either. When they bought Jet America, they threatened the pilot group with shrinking Alaska and expanding Jet America if the pilots didn't accept a concessionary contract.

If you don't think they'd at least make the threat, check out what they just got finished doing to Horizon over the E175 flying.

Baseball style has nothing to do with the number of arbitrators... it forces each MEC to essentially make "their best offer" and then someone (1-100 arbitrators) picks just one side in it's entirety without changes.

DAL/NWA was absolutely not baseball style arbitration. Both sides made typical case for why they deserved top spots (generalization) and then the arbitrator did an SLI based on arguments, taking some from DAL and some from NWA.

Baseball style would force each MEC to realize an equitable/plausible solution to it's own members, as not to risk outright losing with over demands. This would create much less hostility between the groups as grownups running the merger committees on each side would explain realities to their own constituencies vice promising the moon and blaming the other side/arbitrator when it didn't come to fruition.

As Pack said before, the threat is that mgmt would want to use the same process in negotiating contracts.

I was wondering how the flight attendant merger will go as well. Does McCaskill-Bond apply to them at all? Will the virgin FA's just get stapled? I think they are non-Union, but I could be wrong.