RBA, I think you may have glossed over bullet #2--forgivably so, from your point of view. I transitioned from .mil to .civ flying in 2013, and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around a lot of concepts (let alone finer points) involved with this....

Anyway, #2 again for reference:

NOT trying to take anything away from Scoop's excellent analysis/overall points/other bullets, since I agree with him and found much of it to be thought-provoking. However, I think #2 is a bigger part of this from the point of view from which I understand you to be asking the question than a quick summary of "bullets"--particularly at its #2 position--might lead you to consider.

Some of those "not executable" plans are things management simply cannot escape (training load created by accelerating retirements coupled with fleet changes and exacerbated by an outdated pay scale [E190])--and the fact that these are all situations created by management and/or highly visible that "should have" been planned for better [eg, age 65]. For better or worse, management chose not to hire well beyond the point that they needed to do so--and, now they reap what they have sown... and they literally cannot, under the terms of the existing contract, get the training done at the pace it needs to get done. That's a management "want," one to be negotiated against pilot "wants."

Pilot wants can generally be lumped into two broad categories: compensation & QoL. Company wants are all over the map, but they all boil down to money: as someone commented, not necessarily the lowest cost, but the highest profit for whatever cost. The mere fact that (a) the company wants things they can't have under the existing contract provides motivation for them to (b) negotiate with the pilot group to "pay more than the status quo" (as I think you phrased it) in exchange for those company wants.

NOW factor in ALL of the other reasons Scoop & others have cited. The company may well be in a position to stall (either in reality or as a negotiating tactic), but they do have motive to negotiate. Where will that motivation take us...? Hell if I know!!

 

you know jughead, I didn't think of it quite in that matter...
so, to keep it simple: during the "current" contract period, there are things that the company wants to adjust in their favor. depending on the level that these items rise to, then labor can reply with an increased bar of their own. each group does its own "cost-benefit analysis" and if the two lines meet, then they will each approve the new contract.

I was admittedly looking at it from a narrow lens (based on things that I read here and hear in the ready room)... one that is naturally biased. I hadn't considered that the new contract would have changes that were favorable to the company. In hindsight, that was pretty naive.

 

It's a process. It behooves the Company to have labor peace. Wall Street and the investment community want to see labor peace and no unknowns.

At the end of March we are mutually taking the next step: Mediation. (Do not confuse mediation with arbitration. They are totally separate operations.)

We are going to be assigned a skilled mediator. This person will slowly apply pressure on both sides to come to an accommodation. They will make both sides show up to the table. They don't like to admit failure. He or she will use all kinds of negotiating skills to find common ground. If the mediator is successful, we will end up with a contract. If they are unsuccessful, we move to the next step in the process. Mediators don't like to be unsuccessful. We want to be reasonable in our positions. In the eyes of the mediator, you get bonus points for being reasonable.

Before it's over, we will likely stand up a strike committee, family awareness network, a reconstituted P2P and informational picketing. The Company will make sure our fellow employees loath us and threaten us with various types of recriminations. It's all part of the process. Don't take it too personally.

It's a process that can take weeks or years. It depends on the motivation of both sides. There is no avoiding the process. Every airline pilot in this country is unionized. You can't avoid that fact, either.

DAL has never had a strike. NWA was known as Cobra Airlines because they struck at everything. Which approach is better? Who knows. All that we can do is support our brothers and sisters, wear our lanyards and ALPA pins, stay informed and realize that this process is designed to prevent commerce from coming to a stop.