Can you back that up - perhaps with some inkling of the best offer that SWAPA had for FAPA? My understanding is that SWAPA's last and best offer was a staple and no job protection for the bottom third of the Frontier pilots that would have been furloughed (SWA only wanted something like 2/3 of the Frontier fleet). Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

You are right, it was a staple job and every f9 pilot would have been better off. I won't go into details but let's just say you can't compare f9 with airtran merge and my best friend was a fapa rep at the time. Like I said, fglad you have them back vs what you have now but don't overlook the whole story.

 

Who is your best friend, because that isn't what happened. Have him PM or call me if he wants to know the real story.

...I can't believe the SWA story keeps coming up.

Here is the short short version,

4 hour conference call, agreed on lots of things in 4 hours including an agreement to spend the weekend together (FAPA and SWAPA) down in Dallas. FAPA traveled back to Denver, planned on heading to dallas that day but the auction for F9 ended when SWA pulled the bid.

For the last time, no one at FAPA said 'No' to SWAPA. SWA (the company) said no to the auction.

That is a fact.

 

Alright, I guess my friend was misinformed. Good luck with Franke, learn from the spirit guys.

 

What did that support consist of?

 

Like most emotional events there is a lot of disinformation out there.

The morning prior to the conference call the President of SWAPA assured the FAPA reps that there would be nothing like a staple and everything was going to be great for everyone. Later that day, one of the FAPA guys was online prior to the start of the now infamous webcast (audio and visual was live) and the SWAPA reps were displaying images of a stapler on a large screen via a projector while everyone laughed out loud.

Even though the SWAPA guys said one thing and proceeded to do the opposite, FAPA continued to attempt to negotiate. Surprisingly a lot was agreed upon during the short call. Everyone was in agreement that it was worthwhile to meet again and that was the plan for the next few days. No further meetings occurred. Finally, there were some claims that SWAPA "desperately" tried to contact FAPA the day of the F9 auction. Here is the one and only communication (via email, no calls were made) sent on 8/13 at 11:32:31AM MDT from SWAPA...

"I know nothing has transpired yet with regard to the SWA bid. I certainly don't think we need to have face time in the next few days if things are just status quo..."

And that was that. It is water under the bridge. SWA and SWAPA continue to do very well and I wish them continued success in the future.

With regard to Indigo, Franke, and the rest of the gang that will likely launch a full scale shock and awe attack on our CBA.

The core group of FAPA reps have been through an incredible amount of adversity over the past six years. A BK filing, a threat of 1113, a multimillion dollar unsecured claim, a post BK filing restructuring, a complete change of management, a post BK exit restructuring, another complete change of management, a loss of bargaining status, a simultaneous attack on our seniority by another union, numerous frivolous lawsuits attempting to seize our assets and returns on investment, a complete divestiture of the airline to yet another completely new management/ownership team, a re-designation of bargaining status.

Meanwhile we have carved out a fairly large potential return on our investment that can't be bargained. In other words, we have an investment that is managed by a third party investment team (that FAPA created) instead of a labor organization. Its value is dependent upon the success of an airline, so take that for what it is worth, but it can't be negotiated away.

Finally, our CBA is exactly as it was written pre-BK. It was never industry leading but we managed to protect all of the work rules (we have a pretty good scheduling section with incredible flexibility) and all of the pay rates snap back including two additional pay raises that didn't exist pre-bk.

Is FAPA the best thing ever? Nope, they suck sometimes just like everyone else. Has FAPA achieved some absolutely incredible things, against all odds, since 2008? Damn right they have. FAPA knows things will continue to be challenging and they are prepared to once again do whatever it takes to protect the careers and CBA of the F9 pilots.

 

...and this is exactly why they were re-elected! FAPA - battle bred.

 

FAPA is probably the worst union for us, except for all the others.

 

'SWA merge', thats a good one. I dont think there is enough lube in the world for the way swapa wanted to 'merge' with us. Every time I read a post like this, I thank god that somebody like you wasn't in charge of negotiating on my behalf.

Have you ever thought about writing a book to pass on some of your expertise?
You could call it:
"Acquiesce for Success: The cactiboss guide to high stakes negotiating"

or

"Heck yeah I grabbed my ankles and said thank you, they offered me lots of money!"

 

What rumor is that?