Didnt realize you were a legal scholar. Some “simple words” have a ton of nuance in legal circles. Another example is “implement” which our company takes liberties with. That said, no, your “not rocket science” take has a lot of nuance. In fact, all these “simple words” are in fact simple in their colloquial use, but anything but in their legal use. Here’s an explanation that barely only scratches the surface.

A past practice is not just something that has been done before; “past practice” has a specific legal definition. From a legal perspective, a past practice is related to collective bargaining matters and must be (1) long-standing, (2) uniformly applied, (3) uniformly understood by both faculty and their manager, and (4) consistent with the Agreement and state and federal laws. “Long-standing” is understood to be several years, not weeks, or months, or even one year. About three years is the generally accepted length of time for an otherwise qualified procedure to be considered a past practice. The more years a past practice is in place, the more established it becomes. Just as the Agreement is not a perfect document covering all considerations, the same is true of past practices. Thus, “uniformly applied” means the practice is used predominately within the scope of its application and there may be necessary exceptions. For example,faculty expertise or legitimate faculty or department needs might lead to variation in application of a scheduling practice.Such departures from “uniformly applied” would not disqualify the practice from being a past practice. “Uniformly understood” means both faculty and management recognize and acknowledge the practice. New faculty and new deans coming into a division and department can mean that a past practice is not known by all, so “uniformly understood”requires substantial, not absolute consensus. “Consistent with the
Agreement and state and federal laws” means past practices cannot conflict with the contract language or any state or federal laws that may apply. For example, a department cannot establish a past practice of having full-time faculty teach part of their load on the weekends because the Agreement states that the normal academic workweek is between Monday and Friday.

 

Not a legal scholar, just like the article you linked to wasn't written by one either. I've just been around the block a few times.

Past practice is simple constructionally.

 

But how is maple syrup made? Inquiring minds...

There's little to no chance we get anything. The best we can hope for is a "split the baby" decision. The latitude given to arbitrators is criminal IMHO.

 

Completely agree. We wouldn’t win this one.

 

Racketeering.

 

lapping china eastern as well.

 

The pilot group has immense leverage right now, both in timing and in scheduling ladder. Until a TA is reached (and likely after) we are each enjoying the movement of 2,000+ bodies being hired this year and indefinite 200% flying for all seniority levels; which is likely way to short of where we need to be with our work rules.

Completion factor is suffering by the way. The flights operating (95% of our flights) are leading the industry on on-time performance (vast majority of our passengers aren’t seeing anything wrong). There will be no negative impact to profit due to this CF issue. It’s a metric management clearly wants to correct asap, but to pretend it’s anything but leverage for pilots is hilarious.

In fact., will likely end the year with record revenue and since Delta is best positioned in this economic environment our profit gap will widen between DL and UA. United still has a two labor group contracts to go, SFO, ORD, and EWR are FAA constrained, they have no fortress hubs to control pricing power, and they have no ancillary revenue income via non-aircraft associated stream like MRO or refinery + their JV/CC revenue streams are much weaker. This is why they’re cutting more flying, slowing hiring, and ramping up the old jet retirements. Personally, very excited to see UA lose ground in Q2 and beyond when so many of you think differently.

This Summer will be a **** show guaranteed, but it will not meaningfully affect the bottom line. Delta is in by far the best position to weather this environment due to its revenue streams and disciplined growth past few years. Pilot group, again, has a ton of leverage with Delta’s economic health showing no signs of weakening. Meanwhile, UA labor groups continue to go without raises while Delta employees get a 5th raise in years before United groups get anything.

 

“Past practice” and “racketeering” in the legal profession are what’s known as “terms of art.”

Terms of art aren’t limited to the legal profession.

“Squawk”, “deadhead”, “clean”, “dirty” are examples in the pilot profession that mean one thing to the general public but something completely different to a professional aviator.

Anytime I recognize a phrase as being a TOA in the legal world, I shrug my shoulders and wonder what it really means in its narrow context, because I’m not an attorney, and I doubt most here are either.

 

Delta can hire it's way out if the ongoing operational disaster with two people. Things aren't RyGHT at Delta.

 

I would prefer to see the entire ship RyGHTEd.