I agree with you, this LOA should be turned down.

We need better soft pay. This LOA is a band aid that’s only going to benefit a few people. We finally have leverage, let’s use it to our advantage.

Personally, having seen how they operate, I'd vote no on any "improvement" that has a sunset clause (end date) that makes extension totally at their option.

Include a hard improvement like if the parties do not agree to revise & extend this LOA, then all FO regular rates shall permanently increase by 8% and all CA rates shall increase by 5% from current CBA rates. Additionally, if the company and union do not reach agreement on a revised reserve pilot CBA amendment by XX date, then the following modifications to the reserve rules shall take effect: (list changes).
Furthermore, henceforth the company shall make a 5% direct contribution to all CA 401k, and shall make an 8% direct contribution to all FO 401k. This shall be in addition to current 401k matching programs.
Pilots shall have the right to drop scheduled line flying so long as they do not go below 60 hours scheduled block for the month. Red & redder shall not apply to these trip drops. Trip trades of equal number of days on duty, or of trip values within 4 hours pay credit of eachother shall not be denied due to red/redder.
Health Insurance shall adjust the employee/employer prorations such that pilots shall pay no more than 18% of their costs calculated on an annual basis.
Company shall provide - at no cost to each pilot - both long term and short term disability insurance equal to no less than 70% of their salary.

Make their own inaction your weapon.

Don't just give them the ability to get beef in the seats for free.

Good luck guys; it's a great time to be a pilot. Make the most of it. Wanna really **** them off; tell em your hiring me as a contracted CBA negotiator. They can't fire me a fourth time, nothing to lose, and I'll tell em exactly where they can shove their bull**** offers. Right before I march over to the media about the abusive management at American's subsidiary.

I’d hope our union teams take note, at least unofficially for consideration. If there are discretionary funds, I’d give up a few pizza parties to compensate a consultant who is intimately familiar with our situation. Not saying the team is not capable, but no shame in taking all the help we can get, formally or behind the scenes.

even with tight money, you know the company is paying big money for professional advice on this stuff. It’s just business, I would too managing millions of dollars and tying to make every one count.

I agree 100%

Unfortunately it seems like our MEC is committed to sign this LOA. Our MEC should play with the little bit of leverage that we finally have.

So….
A. The sunset clause doesn’t protect the company at all. It only protects the pilots. If the company determines SCC isn’t in their interest they can just not designate any days as SCC. It’s entirely in their discretion.

B. It’s great that you listed a bunch of stuff that all pilots would want, except, since RW would sacrifice his own first born before agreeing to any of that, you should have thrown in free ice cream and slushy machines in the break rooms.

C. That’s a lot of tough talk from a guy who was on the MEC when we signed the 10 year concessionary turd we are currently under. Which, btw, is WORSE than the 10 year concessionary turd that got turned down 6 months prior to that.

D. QOL is going suck for the next few months, because the company needed to address staffing 6 months ago. We might as well get paid extra for the suck.

The ALPA lawyers are very good at helping the company get quick LOA’s MEC approved instead of by pilot vote, by pointing out that the MEC determines what “significant” changes are.... and only significant changes require pilot votes.

By that standard, you will NEVER be entitled to a pilot vote if they don’t want you to have one. They’ll do one little LOA at a time until you’ve essentially got a whole new CBA you never voted on. This is the most abused language in the by-laws. I wanted it changed back in 2014-2015 and couldn’t get past their fear that we’d lose something good if the company had more time to think on things making it less likely for us to get a quick grab before they realize the true cost.
In my years on the MEC, that happened once. The NY base closure LOA was way more than they intended to give once they started complying with it. That was Adam and me. The ALPA lawyers walked out saying we were asking too much and they weren’t going to do it. Adam and I went in ourselves and got every single thing we asked for. The company forever said we held them hostage for too much.

300% is 300%. Obviously the company is doing it because it is projecting short term understaffing. I can’t imagine them conceding to long term pay increases at this point. There is a pretty good backlog of pilots looking for a job right now, so they don’t need to. It is training capacity that is creating the shortage, not a lack of applicants. In a year or two they may end up back at having to increase enticements for recruiting purposes. That is when they’ll do the permanent stuff.

While I agree that simple pay increases don't really do anything to solve the company's current staffing issues, that doesn't mean there's not an opportunity to seek a permanent gain. For instance:

Scratch the whole 'super' critical with a sunset clause language. Instead, simply permanently increase the regular OT premium and critical coverage rates.

300% is nice, but getting rid of the captain pay banding would be nicer. Envoy needs the pilots to bail them out because RW and JD royally screwed up. If this LOA fails, then August pilot vacations will be canceled along with September which will only embolden the pilot rage even more.