continued wait to possibly end up as the lowest paid overnighting 737 pilot in the industry. many have said that these 737 need to fly 12 hrs a day 7 days a week and overnights are coming. there goes the QOL, now we're just another 737 flying airline that does overnights for less, at least for the next 3 years maybe.

 

wouldn’t be shocked if only a handful of dispatchers make the move to LAS. They have a very very senior dispatch office there with a ton of Mesaba and Northwest refugees there. Many of them will likely just retire.

 

This is why it’s important to see all the work rules Sun Country added in the 2021 CBA to protect and pay us for multi day trips, and red eyes. Min day, trip rig, premium pay escalations with no cap, max duty and max legs on the back side of the clock, re assignment and re scheduling rules and pay additions when rescheduled. We need extended duty pay, and sit pay in the next deal, industry normal LTD, 401K. ALPA national, the current SCA council and negotiating committee are all aware of what the other big ALPA carriers plus Southwest have and what we need going forward. ALPA works very well in climbing the peg board with bargaining and extracting all the value you can get out of a contract.

 

Look, anything is possible right? But, all I can say is based on what I'm hearing in my conversations, it appears that both sides want to seal a deal. As far as GU or National getting in the way, my understanding is that there was a serious conversation recently were RJ told the IBT to not meddle, or intervene or they WILL lose this pilot group to ALPA much, much faster. From what I was told, it appears the IBT was very receptive. As far as the company goes, I was also told that the leadership told everyone on their side to put their "guns" down, and lock down a TA. So I just encourage everyone to see what happens this week. My assumption based on the current information, we should see progress.

The acquisition announcement definitely changed the dynamic. Not to mention from what I heard the mediator is not going to entertain any impasse, or proffer talk. It is very clear to me now, that although we can blame the company, the fact remains that it was the NC that conducted themselves in a very amateur manner, and that their only goal/agenda was to achieve an impasse. That is absolutely dead right now. No more games. We're going to have to lock something down, even if it's "watered" down.

Like Nate said, and I've been saying on Whatsapp and FB, if we don't lock SOMETHING down, and soon, we will be negotiating from were we currently are for years. We are now in this position because of the absolute arrogance, ignorance, recklessness from short sided individuals that wanted too much instead of bringing actual progress and improvements. Their past comms said it all! It was just chaos, shifting the goal post, and narrative control. A whole bunch of half truths and nonsense almost got us iced out (AGAIN).

After THREE different mediators, it was beyond clear to me who was the real problem here. I was branded a company plant and other nonsense bc I called out their bluff. It is what it is... time for a TA ladies and gents.

 

I hope you are right Chapi but I will remain skeptical of management actually wanting to get a TA quickly. The merger is announcement is an absolute gift and every industry insider believes the regulatory process has no chance of messing this up because the only “competitive” implication is what to do ATW/RSW…one single route.

this will have absolute zero impact on pricing. So this deal, by all accounts is gonna close quickly. Two tiny airlines with no overlap whatsoever. Even Minny politicos aren’t screaming about it because Allegiant is better than some other airline that’s gonna destroy the MSP market.

so where does that leave us? With VERY little time to get a deal done which allows management to “pretend” to show some effort and bargain in good faith but not actually offer anything.

we will see, but management has 100% of the leverage and NOT doing a deal will be what the bean counters want to do. The savings in pilot pay will give them their sacred Op Margin: their one and true worship.

I just don’t see it but hope I am wrong. I hope management has learned that to truly be a big boy airline you cannot always pay pilots the bare minimum. The FAs seem to love their deal and management could have delayed that for years and kept them at rock bottom pay but they didn’t. So I’m open to the possibility I could be wrong, but I am very skeptical.

I’m rambling rambling so I hope you are right Chapi

 

I agree with pretty much what you're saying. I'm very optimistic of course bc of what I'm hearing, but I do agree with you, there is a bit of skepticism even from me. Which is why I want to see what happens this Thursday and Friday. I'm sure we will get union comms afterwards, and of course I will continue to converse with many. I pray I don't get this one wrong. As like many other things I've spoken of, there's always a part of me that hopes I didn't call it incorrectly. Which is why I try not to boast when I call it right, bc I know there's just something else around the corner I could get wrong.

But we'll see my friend. Fingers crossed! Cheers!

 

I’m hearing that the labor disputes must be calmed before the transaction goes through. They can’t go into a merger with 1300 ****ed off pilots who are owed a lot of money This is why Captainbfv might be right in this case. Most likely we will reach a SUBPAR agreement sometime this year.

 

Maybe we could bring in a copy of the Sun Country contract and say give us this and the retention bonus. Done.
It seems like having pilots work under totally different contracts and pay scales during years of JCBA negotiations is going to be complicated and demoralizing. Particularly if we’re working for 1/3 less pay than our colleagues.

 

This makes sense, I don't see how dragging out your CBA helps the ownership at this point. Hopefully it is something you are satisfied with.


I'm hoping for some jointly organized efforts to get to know each other and become familiar with everyone's concerns and objectives.

Being part of a smaller group all these years, I am encouraged by the idea of having a much larger bargaining group in the future. You guys broke the thousand pilot mark, which is significant, now we can crack 2000. Throw in some growth, and we are off to the races.

 

JCBA is usually super abbreviated compared to typical sec 6. (Think months not years) List integration is a huge piece of leverage, hence why many groups go in that order…JCBA then SLI. We already have been offered better than SY +$80 so let’s not start saying we’ll take what they had in 2021. We should be expecting more like the company’s last comp proposal IMHO with a caveat that negotiations resume immediately upon merger approval or denial.