iceman49

SOC should have nothing to do with the vote. Post or Pre.

Sink r8

I shouldn't, in a perfect world, but it sure will in this world.

I can't prove it, but from my vantage point, the vote is losing traction (although not enough to fail). Maybe I say this because I was recently surprised to see an AFA sticker. Why exactly was I surprised? Because it was the first in quite a while. Turns out the F/A was North...

Last time we had a vote, it seems to me we saw lots of stickers.

Now, it would take a fairly high number of NW F/A's to vote down a union, so I personally think it will pass, regardless of timing. The question is how it looks after the vote... And if it happens now, before the F/A's get to work together, and find some consensus, it'a going to be very, very close. Based on what I see from our side's culture, especially ATL, it's also going to be very, very ugly. So, IMHO, it would be intelligent to wait for the group to actually interface, and people to learn to live with each other, and learn each other's idiosyncracies before a vote. By then, some sort of consensus will develop.

Of course, I'm sure no such approach will be taken, and the AFA has already decided that, surely, a union is good for all Delta F/A's, and the South gals were simply...confused when they voted it down twice previously. I guess it's simply a matter of the small group straightening out the big group, and decades of internal power struggles, and decades of domination by the senior-most (ATL) F/A's will be wiped clean, and without any ugliness...

Or maybe we'll see incredible fireworks as the two cultures collide headlong into one another. For the first time, they might actually run out of saliva for pilot meals. It'll be a matter of keeping your head down, and not getting caught in the middle, as the claws extend, never to retract.

I'm no expert on Delta F/A's, having spent less than a decade working with them. But neither is AFA, having failed to organize them twice. I for one would recommend they sit still for a few months, and try a little courtship from within. A little cajoling. A little less "this is what you need", and a little more "let's get together". I think a lot of our gals would be a lot more comfortable if they were better educated from within.

Delaying the vote would pay dividends, and IMHO be the smart play, but who has that kind of patience?

JoeMerchant

This is a key point in why we are at a disadvantage. Unlike any other profession, we have to start all over at the bottom if we change employers.....This puts us at a negotiating disadvantage with management, and pits us against one another.

We did this to ourselves...

acl65pilot

Sure has been quiet........

KC10 FATboy

Everyone wants the benefits of seniority.

StormChaser

Everyone's too busy watching football today.

forgot to bid

48 hours of football.

48.

forgot to bid

But here is something... note the date... I guess we should say good morning to our NRT folks.

TOKYO, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Japan Airlines (JAL) (9205.T) (9205.T) shares jumped on Monday following news that the struggling airline was in talks on investment by American Airlines and Delta Airlines (DAL.N).
The shares opened up 9.2 percent before trimming gains to 174 yen a gain of 6.7 percent, outperforming a 1.6 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average.

"JAL shares will stay high today, as uncertainties about its financial conditions are eased by the report of investment," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, manager of equities at Daiwa Securities SMBC.

"However, whether JAL can turn around its business is another story. A focus is on details of the possible deals and how JAL capitalises on them to reform its management."

JAL, Asia's largest airline by revenues, lost about $1 billion last quarter and has been seeking investors to prop up its finances for a state-supervised overhaul expected to include job cuts, a reduction in routes and asset sales.

American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp (AMR.N), has been in talks to invest in JAL and form a joint venture to expand their business partnership, a source with direct knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Sunday. [ID:nT87438]

JAL is also weighing an offer from Delta, a source told Reuters last week. According to Japanese media, Delta would inject up to 50 billion yen ($553.8 million) into JAL and wants a tie-up that would include code-sharing on international flights. [ID:nN11471217] [ID:nT253155]

JAL is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance with American Airlines while Delta is a member of the rival SkyTeam group. ($1=90.28 Yen) (Reporting by Yumiko Ni****ani; Editing by Rodney Joyce

German Herman

Go Pack Go...!!!!!!

forgot to bid

And oh by the way...

The 2009 10 Most Deadliest Jobs in America:
1. Fishers and related fishing workers
2. Logging workers (excluding paper sales man and middle management in Scranton PA)
3. Aircraft pilots and the flight engineers who follow them
4. Iron workers
5. Farmers
6. Refuse and recyclable materials collectors
7. Roofers
8. Electrical power-line installers
9. Driver/sales workers and truck drivers
10. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf