Bow down before your America West Overlords.

 

I've told you, over and over again, that I disagreed with USAPA's method and their DOH proposal. That doesn't make the Nicolau right, and anyone can see the windfall. The fact that today every single west pilot has an east guy below them on the Nic that is a group 2 or higher captain makes that clear. No thinking person can come to the conclusion that AWA would have been able to grow enough, in this economy, to make that happen. The financial results show that you guys didn't have the kind of airline to make that happen. NO AIRLINE DID from 2005, so AWA certainly couldn't have.

Yeah, I missed the part about Bradford stopping negotiations. Where was it, I'll go read it. I remember the ALPA MEC pulling out and have said that was a mistake and not ethical. But USAPA came back in and started negotiations right away. They have been the whole time, but your lawsuits made that a waste of time.

Bottom line-The TA that you guys wanted, prevented the use of the NIC, or any seniority scheme, without a JCBA. Period. It doesn't matter how or why. That's what happened and that's why we don't have the Nic. The merger and MOU changed the landscape, right or wrong.

On another topic, have you really considered the potential pitfalls of going into an arbitration as a separate entity?

 

Frisco, since you have called me a liar, I want to make one definitive statement about the condition of US Airways in 2004-early 2005. It was dire. Absent a merger or a major cash infusion from an outside source, we were probably headed to chp7. And I've acknowledged repeatedly, unlike some of my east brothers, that the merger with AWA(coupled with the outside funding) was probably better than just and infusion as the AWA western network added value to the airline, made corporate accounts easier to sell with the bigger network, and made formerly unprofitable parts of US profitable.

The point is that Nicolau made it seem if it was charity or some kind of white knight. It wasn't. AWA needed restructuring too, and didn't have the cash to make that happen. Their system was weaker than ours and they'd only managed to get by for years due to low costs. That advantage was ending as we and most airlines came down to their levels. Those aren't my words, they are Doug Parker's and I can provide you quotes from him when I get home.

So we both needed the merger and it helped both companies. The relative financial conditions on one day shouldn't have been given so much consideration in the SLI, just as they shouldn't in this merger. With a panel of 3 arbitrators, I'm sure it won't. With the US/AW merger, just like this one, Parker saw a great deal for his company and took it, it wasn't charity.

It's all water under the bridge now. We have a system in place to settle it all.

 

So I will give you the same question the same question as Frisco. If all that is true and USAPA is evil incarnate, why did the APA sign a PA? Why not wait a few more days until SCS and do what they wanted? Hmmm.

I've passed this on before, but I think it's worth repeating as we go forward. I flew with a former PSA guy that was on their strike committee during the strike in the late 70' or early '80s. It didn't go well and I asked him why. He said "Well, when you go through something like that, both sides throw out a lot of BS. You have to be careful not believe your own BS. We believed our own BS and it bit us in the rear."

In the US/AW SLI a lot of guys believed their own BS. It's bit us all in the rear. In the coming months, as we enter SLI negotiations, a lot of BS will flow from BOTH sides. It's a sales job. Try not to get worked up when you see the first proposals, it's going to a panel of 3 arbitrators, and with 3 of them hopefully they will see the BS.

 

For what my newbie third lister opinion is worth, I find R57 to be pretty level-headed.

 

That makes two of us. I'm sure Cacti will be along shortly to call us scabs, 'cause, you know, that really wins us over.

 

Thanks guys, I try. But I will admit to my biases and thin skin.

When you work hard for your company, you and your fellow pilots give up billions to keep it afloat, and then a single man comes in and discounts it all, it's hard to take. Bloch acknowledged all that and took the financial situations of the company off the table. Nicolau didn't.

To cacti and Frisco. At times I've stooped to slights and name calling. I try not to, but I slip. I apologize for that, and will try to keep it in check.

 

Simple statement that no one on the AA side has offered an opinion. As I pasted a few pages back and R57 brought up again.

By the NIC award every West F/O can hold Capt. So by slotting or relative placement with the AA list, Every West F/O should go above every AA F/O, effectively blocking any upgrades on the AA list until every West f/o has a left seat somewhere. Even if restricted to Grp II aircraft.

What is the thought of any AA f/o's of having to wait for about 800 West f/o's to slide into the left seat of a grp II before they have the option?

You ok with that?

 

The NB process will be relative seniority not slotting. If you're 50 percentile you should be close to that after the SLI. It shouldn't matter if you are CA or FO. Now when there is a system realignment AA and West FO's will bid accordingly and some east CA will be doing walk arounds again. Prepare.

 

Sweet, can't wait to be slotted above every AA furlough and in with guys hired in the 1990s