Phew. In that case, I guess I really don't need to worry about "the surrender monkeys" because "the 12" are solidly in the majority. I was concerned for a bit though that dynamics had changed.

Still...it makes one wonder what the NC put forward on August 26th that caused the NMB to schedule negotiating sessions. Maybe "the 12's" position wasn't as unreasonable as Buzz seemed to imply or maybe it was more aggressive than Buzz et al would have liked but maybe the NMB realizes the trend forming with agreements at AA then UAL then Allegiant then UPS and now LUV.

Either way, forward progress is a good thing. Better to vote down a TA sooner rather than later. And sometimes that is what it takes. The NC can sit in that conference room and jump up and down and tell the company "x" isn't going to float, but sometimes it takes a voted down TA to hit that/those point(s) home. Let's see what happens...if anything....from the next round of negotiations. Let the NC do their job and produce a TA before we start labeling anyone "surrender monkeys."

Revisit this quote in a couple of weeks.

My money's on Jerry.

Yes, yes it is.

All of our money is on Gerry and friends. Has been for a little over a year.

Frankly, they have trounced the previous group, and they have the best environment ever. SWA just dovetailed in, and tightened the market. Shouldn't be hard to get a deal in there with a Delta premium.

The MEC has been negotiating together, all through the AIP's, then they chocked in July, and disintegrated in August. I think September is it.

Oh please, what was the environment when the former group delivered us an underwhelming TA, that was soundly defeated? 12 to 7 saves us from another underwhelming TA.

You're kidding, right?

About what?

About the environment we were in. All we had was AMR going ~7% higher, with no PS.

I'm not saying that the "On-Time, On-Target" TA1 was on target, but the vote was decisive, and it gave other airlines an idea of what not to do. TA was the industry reset. Before TA1, FedEx, UPS, SWA were years into their negotiations, with not much to chow for their efforts. TA1, for all its' flaws, was an expression of the democratic process, and the beauty of that process is that it re-drew the market.

Yeah he has thrown enough spaghetti against the wall that some is bound to stick.

Let's go to Vegas.

Come on 22. Come on 22.

"RA needs a deal, baby"!

Within 48 hours.