Man...this really is y'all's first airline aint it...

 

What else do you need to know? Negotiating in public is not a good idea. This is standard procedure. But really, what more information do you need? Do you call your rep? Do you go to the airport meetups? Do you read your emails? This is my second airline and my fifth or sixth contract. Everything is as normal as it could be.

 

No, they expect to get detailed emails that they don't read and immediately delete.

 

Questions first. Yes I call my reps and send DARTs. No, I don't attend airport meetups. Yes I read my e-mails.

I don't need a play by play & I agree public negotiations aren't appropriate.

NC should be more transparent without laying all our cards on the table. Just because things are 'normal' doesn't mean we shouldn't question the norm.

Sharing our UNH survey results would be a good start.

How about an update to our FFT ALPA status sheet from Nov '23, which was distributed along with our economic proposal. (See negotiator newsletter #22.)

Have we amended our economic proposal to placate the company or have we stood firm with what was delivered in Nov? If yes, what's changed?

It would be nice to have a little more detail in the updates. Examples from one recent letter.

"Some larger issues remain" What issues?
"We...are in the process of developing a framework" Explain?
"The Company has shown no inclination to address any of the key issues important to Frontier pilots" What are those issues? What factors are the NC prioritizing?

No doubt the NC has their hands full and I'm not the one at the table. I also am definitely coming from a place of ignorance in terms of what constraints are placed on our team.

If we can share a full economic proposal with the pilot group, then surely we can send survey results and describe some of the meeting elements with more clarity.

 

You realize the company shouldn't have this info right?

 

I agree teams shouldn't have each other's playbooks in every situation.

However, negotiations can benefit from sharing priorities up front because you move away from strictly positional bargaining. Something like: "Our biggest priority is hourly rate, reserve rules are secondary". [Just an example].

Sharing a few important points also avoids impasses over non-central items & it also gives you benchmarks where you can measure success/failure.

For me, the risk of an ALPA negotiation letter leaking to the GO is outweighed by the benefit of having an informed pilot group.

 

Strongly disagree. We will do best by having a UNITED pilot group.

 

I didn't assert a "best" or "worst" for F9 pilots. Agree with you about a "UNITED" pilot group.

I also believe a fully informed pilot group is better than a partially or uninformed group.

 

It’s a problem, and a luxury, with collective bargaining. We have to trust those bargaining for us to get the best for the group. The more pilots involved in the process, ie, “sharing a few important points” to the group, the more splintered negotiations become as 1) each pilot’s personal priorities become more important 2) they become more vocal, tilting negotiations to a smaller group which 3) making it less likely a vote on a new contract will pass. This is a contract for the entire group not for those most senior, the most junior, those who will retire soon or those just starting out on their career.

Knowing out MEC and our NC, I trust they will do their best for all of us. At the end of the day, we get the final vote.

 

Valid counter-perspective that I had not considered. Thanks for the alternate view.


I look forward to that day, whenever it comes.