They have no "grounds". Their argument is that the Union pulled a fast one, five years ago, and they just read the CBA recently. Laughable. If they prevail on this, you know that the whole NMB is totally for sale.

They claim they were not aware that this verbiage was in the CBA when they signed it. Presumably they're trying to prove their incompetence in arbitration.

I can't answer that with facts. I do have a theory. Rumors have swirled that Amazon and DHL gave Atlas an ultimatum, as they are unwilling to go into the fourth quarter with the negative visibility and overall vulnerability they faced last fourth quarter (ABX Strike). I think this is a stab in the dark to appease the customers knowing that we won't stop flying in case of another strike. Just a Hail Mary to avoid having to pay up. I believe they are desperate and will try anything. It's totally baseless. I quoted only a part of the EXCO update, the full update explains their arguement to the arbitrator is "they never read that sentence in question throughout the entire process five years ago and they believe the union pulled a fast one..........You can't make this **** up.

I'm sure there were things in that contract that the pilots didn't catch when it was negotiated. There are always a few gotcha's that slip through on both sides. If a judge ruled against the pilots on this it would essentially render any contract negotiated open to endless revision. I can't imagine a judge wanting to allow that kind of chaos. Even if the ruling only applied to airline labor it could send the airline industry into a tailspin. Can you imagine what the old US Airways Easities would do with a ruling like this?

I know one Captain who just finished IOE who is in the FedEx BI class now. It isn't a secret that Purple is hiring and will be for the foreseeable future and there is no way Atlas can compete with us when it comes to pay and quality of life. Some new hires are going straight to the 777. Come on down!

There is a complication. The section at issue was, as I recall, one of the 4 that was decided by arbitration. So if the ruling from the arbitrator at the time was a,b,c; and the contract somehow ended up saying a,b,c,d; that is a different ball of wax than your normal management/labor squabble.

That said, the language was much talked about at the time. This is not some musty corner of the contract, and I have a hard time believing that it was somehow missed by the lawyers.

In any case I suspect that this is a bit more complex than the crew room understanding.

Good friend of mine, leaving his Atlas 747 CA seat for FDX in the next few weeks.

I'm sure FDX and UPS are appreciative of Atlas providing all those qualified candidates.

Win or lose. Rest assured, they can't touch Southern's strike clause. So, at a minimum 200 of AAWH's pilots will "legally" be able to honor a picket line.




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All of the ABX pilots will be with you shoulder to shoulder brother!
It's unfathomable to me what Atlas management is doing. But what do I know I am just a line freight dawg...

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In a worst case scenario, where Atlas wins, a strike happens, and Atlas pilots that honor it lose their jobs, I imagine us at Southern (and other 1224 carriers) wouldn't go back to work until every one of them is given their jobs back. Let us hope it doesn't come to that though


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