742Dash

I retired early from Atlas and it was like turning the "how I feel" meter back 15 years. It is hard to imagine what slogging through the Atlas meatgrinder on the 74 to my 65th birthday would have been like.

My family doc is also a lot happier with how things look. Not that things looked horrifically bad, but test results that were "OK for a 60 year old but....[insert lecture about diet/exercise/sleep]" are now normal and/or below average risk.

I had bid the 76 as a 60th birthday present to myself, but that did not fix anything since Scheduling would not leave me alone. 'OK to fold, bend spindle and mutate" must have been at the top of my schedule in big red letters.

tbmpilot

I hate to break it to you, but everyone leaving is Uber-junior.

C17B74

For the most part the majority were at the bottom rung jumping ship when able and a few at the end of their rope. Nothing new, it makes sense to resume build and move on to your career carrier of choice when given the opportunity. Come September, it will be interesting to see if the more senior folks throw the towel in. Most likely those with less than 7-10 years invested and 15-20+ remaining til 65. If you have some affinity for what we do and your in your 30s or even 40s you have some very weighted decisions to make. As said before by many it will be a no brainer for most.

*Thread resurrected only to remind ourselves it was a true “showdown” and the proof of its effectiveness or lack thereof will be validated this Fall. Maybe there is only one approach, but doubtful. Hopefully we can learn from both sides; otherwise, it will continue to be the definition of insanity. We appreciate all the genuine effort and time spent advocating for betterment of this pilot group.

zerozero

Frankly, and I'm not trying to be snarky, but that's the wrong test. It's over. The fight is finished. The so called "showdown" was decided by the judge who ruled arbitration is appropriate rather than Sec 6 negotiations.

We fought for four years to finally have that decided and yes, we lost. <wump wummmp> But as it's been stated many, many times before we NEEDED to press the issue because it had never been pressed before.

C17B74

Totally agree, hence the showdown was in quotes. Was it really… True, never pressed in such a way; there are many ways to press and many others to draw from to give it a shot. So we press on, trying this, try that, try this, wash rinse repeat til something sticks. You know the motto here, new day every day.

zerozero

Yeah, but look, I'm not trying to be argumentative. I just think people need to accept who they work for. These guys are basically extremists and their preferred venue is the courtroom, not the conference room. This fact is self evident if you simply measure by time and money.

They spent much more time and money SUING the union then simply negotiating. One estimation is $1 billion spent by the company to achieve the verdict in their favor.

The "showdown" was almost predestined to end in a courtroom.

Keep in mind, their own estimate of the union's proposed contract which they deemed too expensive was close to $1.5 billion.

In other words, had they simply negotiated rather than litigated, that cool billion could have paid for most of the contract YEARS AGO, the merger would be complete, the customers and the pilots would have been quelled, labor peace would prevail, and as the CFO lamented, the executives would have never lost their bonuses for not meeting certain performance requirements.

This story should go down in history as a mangement case study in leadership failure.

nitefr8dog

Listed right after the ATSG/ABX debacle that lasted 7 yrs because leadership labor decisions were based on temper tantrums and emotions instead of sound business practices.

akfrtdwg 57

Technically the lawsuit wasn’t decided. The Judge decided it was not their place to interpret the contract and said it needed to be decided in Arbitration. That’s what I remember. Same result in the end.

zerozero

Sound familiar unfortunately.

zerozero

I went to check the exact language because I think it's important to really understand the holy "process".

I was inexact when I referred to lawsuits. It was technically a management grievance settled by a board, chaired by Nicolau. Probably his last decision. RIP.

The relevant paragraph: