I hope you guys get an excellent contract. The key is involvement and advocacy within the structure you have in place, which for better or worse, is teamsters.

Here is the key issue - negotiators come and go, and as long as they are intelligent and can follow direction, they can succeed.

The question is who is setting the bargaining agenda and who has control over the scope of the NC's actions? It's common to blame negotiators when in fact they may simply be acting as directed. This is not a defense or attack on anyone, it is a pragmatic reality that the process has a lot of fine points to it.

Having watched this play out many times over the years, I can say that shredding your union leadership will result in getting less. It may be justitified (or not), it may feel good. The end game always looks like this, and it always ends up with a lot of anger directed at the union leadership, and many times unfounded accusations mixed in with legitimate ones.

I don't care if my union leadership is the devil or god, if they are in that role they have my PUBLIC support. Support or replace. Those are the only two options that are available. Everything else leads to chaos. You may find that offering public support gets you heard more effectively than being a mouthpiece against your own union.

The company of course sees this as "well, you elected that person, what's wrong with you?"
I will not give management that satisfaction.

Good luck to you all, hope you hit a home run.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
We're in emergency trusteeship; the union leadership & NC were appointed not voted in, and there is no recall process. We're around $130/hr. behind industry standard and have no DC plan, at all, just a 401k match. The vast majority of pilots want to lock in a decent pay rate, get the DC plan on the books, and get the retention bonus paid out. Like 18 months ago.

that decent pay rate better be Alaska's current rates. Everyone else is already negotiating or soon will be.

This is the one thing the union did phenomenal of in the email, pointing out everything the company has said about how profitable we are and how amazing we are yet they just piggyback off our cheap labor.

No, our current union leadership wasn't elected by us, and the dynamic with management remains as bad as it was during AR's time.

While you may not fully understand the intricacies of our airline's situation, your perspective unfortunately mirrors how many of our fellow pilots view things. We've become an overly cautious group, almost paralyzed by an addiction to follow procedure, treating any hint of uncertainty like it's an existential threat. Just whispering the word "chaos" makes many of our coworkers break into a cold sweat.

This unnecessary cautious herd mentality completely misses how things work in the actual business world. Sometimes, a period of disruption is exactly what's needed for positive change - it's simply a temporary tool for achieving results. There's no need for alarm; this happens regularly in business

Think of a union as a service we pay for - and we pay substantial dues specifically to get results like those contract negotiations. Yet in two years, our negotiating committees has achieved virtually nothing significant. It's almost laughable to suggest that independent negotiators could have done worse.

For a rather unsettling experience, check out Allegiant's Trustee Webinar from December 17, 2024. It's difficult to watch them discuss strategies like "building an army from the ground up" and "increasing passenger engagement" as keys to successful negotiations. The disconnect in their thinking is remarkable. Do they even hear themselves?

It appears we're working with different definitions of what qualifies as "phenomenal." The union shouldn't need to prove the company's strong financial performance or demonstrate that they're generating substantial profits from lower labor costs. These are well-established facts that nobody has challenged, and under our current Negotiating Committee's approach, this situation is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

The key point here seems to be that documenting already-known financial facts isn't particularly impressive or helpful - it's just a distraction.

I think it’s phenomenal that they’re finally sacking up and calling the company out. Can’t believe it only took 12 months under GU

Dear skyvanman,

I agree with your assessment regarding TEAMSTERS and Gu's shameful behavior. However, I need to address some misunderstandings in your recent comments.

First, you seem to have intentionally misinterpreted my earlier statements about union transitions. I never suggested a mandatory decertification period is required before joining ALPA. I've been explicit that we should negotiate without either organization involved. That’s all. Reading is hard : )

I'm also concerned that you're dismissing my viewpoints solely based on my account's age. Rather than focusing on the messenger, wouldn't it be more productive to discuss the merits of the ideas themselves instead of aiming at the person?

You seem to have quite a hierarchical view of the world. You are a pilot, aren’t you?

As a fellow pilot, I'm genuinely interested in exploring this topic in a constructive way. Could you share your specific concerns about a scenario where we:

1. Leave TEAMSTERS

2. Handle negotiations independently

3. Eventually transition to ALPA

What exactly are your worries about this plan? What scenarios concern you?

I look forward to having a constructive dialogue about these important matters.

It doesn't matter who's negotiating the contract, they will find themselves up against Allegiant. This isn't a normal airline. Allegiant just wants to wear the pilot group down but its not going to work. The Union is going to have to figure out how to start ratcheting up the pressure with the $10 million in the bank, that email with a very public spanking a few days ago was a good start. If we have to sit here another 10 years then so be it, I'll watch this place burn down before I trade anything away. Allegiant pilots are to have the same rules and pay as everyone else. 1100 pilots are not trading work rules for cash so the other 300, whom the work rules would never apply to anyway, can be happy. That $7000 a month cumulative retention bonus can just sit there an accrue until the end of time.

What would we do if we found out that the money wasn’t being set aside - Not being saved as promised? Who is holding the retention bonus $? Should be public info I would think.

"if?"..............