I can guarantee you, at no point in time did Atlas Teamsters leadership ever agree to binding arbitration.

In point of fact, as indicated above, the company literally sued the union to force the "The Process". Anything contrary to that would have been in contempt of a federal judge.

Are you confusing arbitration with mediation?

We lived this every day. So no... We aren't confusing this with mediation. It wasn't part of the Section 6 flow chart. It went to Atlas's SCOPE which defined a "Process" that ended in forced arbitration.

Yeah I know…question was for JackStraw.

Yes I suppose I am confusing the NMB process with the “amalgamation” that took place.

You were indeed.

You mean a clause in your scope that was approved by the pilots in another contract. So this group that will go toe to toe voluntarily gave up their right to withhold labor in favor of binding arbitration?

Not exactly. That language originated in the very first ALPA contract settled over 20 years ago. Atlas is now Teamsters which was finally successful in having that language removed. The only reason why it remained in place for so long was because the company deliberately exploited it by purchasing two carriers with the same bargaining agents, thereby avoiding Sec 6 and the ratification process, forcing the contract into the hands a 3rd party arbitrator. They did this twice!

Polar Air Cargo was ALPA, same as Atlas, when that merger was announced in 2004.

Then in 2016, Atlas was Teamsters, and so was Southern, when they were acquired in 2016.

Language was finally negotiated out early 2022.

This is what happens when an agreeable and uneducated pilot group allows nonsense to pass. For Atlas it was 20 or so years ago. Then they learned and fought the enemy. For FedEx it was 2006, 2010, 2015 no lesson learned. 2023 was the year FedEx pilots stood up and fought by a majority. The scary part is, we have gaping holes in our agreement like Atlas did that will be exploited. It will get ugly. But we will prevail, or they will fail.

Should be a good example why Scope is one of the, if not the, most important part of a CBA. Any loopholes there can and will be abused. Dietrich is a seasoned veteran in this.