Cross buddy I AM READY to do whatever it takes within the realm of legal options to make this airline a place worthy of my career.

 

I am. I hope it doesn't come to that, but I wouldnt be surprised if it does. I don't know what the lessons learned from the Spirit strike were. This management team fights for every dollar, which is why they have been so successful, but expect a really tough fight for our dollars

 

We will IPO long before a new pilot contract is signed. With our below industry average wages, the company has ever reason to drag out negotiations as long as possible. Plus, what's the average time to negotiate a RLA contract, 3 years?

 

Good to hear brothers!

 

With regard to impending contract negotiations:

Please keep in mind that both the Company and the pilot group are legally required to maintain the status quo during negotiations. Past court cases have established that "status quo" means more than just following the contract. It also includes actions such as waiving contractual rights to a reserved seat for deadheads; performing a single-engine taxi; agreeing to waive our CBA provision for a calendar day off in domicile every 7 days; picking up open time, etc.

If, in the days, months, and years leading up to official CBA negotiations, we have a track record of doing all these things, then we can't just stop doing them the moment our negotiating committee faces tough times in dealing with the Company. We would be subject to actionable claims of an "Illegal Job Action." The historical track record we're establishing right now will be used to determine what is "status quo" during negotiations.

On the flip side, if we allow the Company to continually violate certain provisions of our CBA without challenge, the Company is establishing a "status quo" baseline as well. Our claims of unfair labor practices during official contract negotiations will fall flat because the Company will be able to show they're not doing anything in 2017 that they haven't been doing since 2015.

If ensuring the CBA is followed on a daily basis isn't already important enough, please keep this in mind as we establish the "status quo" that both sides will be expected to maintain beginning in March, 2016.

Oh… one more thing: Be sure EVERYONE is establishing a strike fund. We all know it's coming. If, by some miracle, we don't end up striking, then feel free to use your strike fund to buy some really great Christmas presents in the year 2019!

 

But, the company cannot claim a precedent for activities that are disputed, flown and grieved, correct? Pretty obvious answer, but just want to be sure.

 

You are correct.

 

Do you know what the new cost will be for employee + family?

 

Can status quo, in this context, be completely outside CBA provisions?

 

If I'm understanding your question, yes.

A wild example to make sure I'm answering the question you're asking:

If the Company came out tomorrow and started asking each captain to hop on one foot and rotate 360 degrees in a counterclockwise fashion before entering the aircraft prior to the first flight of the day… And we didn't object… And every pilot complied with this request… Then we couldn't just stop doing it because we are disappointed in the lack of progress after 2 years of contract negotiations EVEN THOUGH there's nothing in the CBA mandating this behavior.

There's no a bright line between what is and is not a violation of status quo. It's more of a sliding scale between how long the activity has been going on and how tough it is to prove from an objective standard.

The Company might claim violation of status quo for things like: Single Engine Taxi frequency; Sick Calls; Fatigue Calls; A decrease in folks picking up open time; Longer taxi times; More logbook write-ups; More logbook write-ups in inconvenient places, etc.

The Union might claim: Inefficient trip assignments; Decrease in quality of layover hotels; Increased deadheads; Payroll errors; Increased hassle for delays; Creation of new job duties, etc.

The ability to prevail in a claim for violation of the status quo provisions will depend on the severity of the violation and the ability of the claimant to objectively prove the case. If you look at my list of Company violations, it should be pretty obvious to anyone who's paying attention that the Company has already started building a record to show that NOTHING they do 2 years from now is anything they didn't do prior to negotiations.