busted!!!!

Management is the one setting all the deadlines.

Leverage
 

Right now to me it seems that pinnacles management is running out of leverage in this negotiating process, so their only last resort to wear down the pilot group is to play with "deadlines". Even if they can get away with a few of them, seems like they only have a few more extensions to play with before the 9e pilot group is going back on the strike path. Unfortunately for management, with the fact of them now having problems not only with bargaining in bad faith with one group, but three groups, the it will be hard for the nmb to ignore their desire to strike...

They should not set a 45 day deadline if they do not think they can make it. And setting a 3 day deadline that they didn't make adds insult to injury. I would rather them set the deadline in February if that is what it takes for them to get this done. But once you pass a deadline and extend it to me that means you loose all credibility.

I also think maybe ALPA needs to remind all three pilot groups about what the FOM says about when we drop the parking break and when you should write up maintenance issues(even the outstations) and if the 9E and 9L guys already follow the FOM then us Mesaba guys need to be reminded.

Hey they can extended it for the next few weeks for all I care. What I wont accept is any extension past the holidays. If they can get it done next week great, go for it. However under no circumstances should we accept a deadline past the holidays. We already gave up Thanksgiving.

Well alright then...management's word doesn't carry any weight with the employee group anyway...so it's no real surprise that 45 days came and went without a TA. Call it a tactic, a ploy...whatever. All it amounts to is another shovelful of management bullsh*t added to the ever growing pile.

I have been watching this unfold from the outside since the beginning. I can not believe that rational pilots are acting irrational. (Then again reading this and FI blogs proves that wrong each day.)

Since the 9E pilots are very insistent on bringing up the history of everything that has happened up to this point lets go over some things. For one 9E was on ice from the NMB. The NMB did not put 9E on ice because it didn’t picket enough, wasn’t militant enough, or any other emotional feeling that pilots are feeling. They got put on ICE because a deal could not be had. The sole purpose for the NMB is to make a deal happen using all its tools. Another pertinent part of this is the company holds an arbitrators ruling that Colgan and Pinnacle Inc are not single carrier status. Finally the pilot group went through a failed TA due to sloppy language and lacking improvements.

So what has changed since the acquisition of XJ? NMB still has 9E on ice. If the gap is just as large after these negotiations as it was before being put on ice why would NMB act any different? Mesaba was bought by Pinnacle Holdings meaning the same arbitrator ruling applies. Obviously the company has not offered to sweeten the deal enough to make it pass the membership vote or the deal would be struck.

So what is happening today? To start the company is voluntarily meeting with the JNC, which it does not have to. Additionally should the jncba process fail, the company will go back to its stance of enjoying the NMB dictated recess. No deadlines, no meetings, nothing just waiting.

Contractual improvements? Nobody gets them until the whole package is ratified. Right now this jncba is like owning stock, it is worthless until you execute the trade. The deal has to be good enough to pass 50%+1. If not you are all in the same boat as you are today.

Is your impatience worth sacrificing something our industry and profession needs? Like it or not what happens with Pinnacle holdings affects all pilot groups. Getting a deal just to get a deal isn’t worth doing. Are you going to get an industry leading contract? More than likely you will not. Are you going to end up with something better? For sure, if you are patient and let the process unfold.

If each time they meet they chisel away for improvements why not keep going you are not getting those any other way at this point. Those that are adamant about an industrial action are so wrong! Not about wanting to do there part to help, but it will not. All you need to do is go to alpa.org and look on the right hand side of the web page for a little reminder to “United Pilots”. That’s a reminder of a court imposed injunction from ANY thing other than what the company deems normal. This is the new world post “ASA”. All the company would do is take all the posts from this blog, airlinkpilots, and flightinfo along with the United injunction and some poor operating stats and cripple the unions activity. So I ask again is that better then where you are at today, making progress towards something?

Now anther part of the past is the unique and very desirable part of a bankruptcy LOA that no other airline has EVER achieved. LOA 23 part B.1.c is worth waiting to keep. This will prevent the 6 years of negotiations for this pilot group and hopefully becomes an industry standard going forward. One month of extra bargaining is to insure five years go with raises in the future is a great investment.

Finally for the 9E pilots guess what; you’re not the only ones in this anymore. I have heard that the 9E pilots get more fragmented with each missed deadline. Just wait and see what fragmentation is when you got three pilot groups and multiple seniority bands all fragmented. If you try to push XJ and 9L out of the picture to get “your” contract done, that’s exactly what will happen. 9E has been given unfair bad reputation; don’t give your fellow pilots any facts to cling to. Protect everyone’s seniority, protect their jobs, ensure a proper wage and working conditions, provide of a level of retirement, and put “your” personal emotional issue aside and preserve our profession.

We were not put on ice because a deal could not be had. We were put on ice practically hours before the Mesaba acquisition announcement. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Exactly. EL10's entire opinion is based on us being put on ice because we couldn't get a deal. That is not why we were put on ice.

Actually it doesn’t matter the reason why you got put on ice. The fact is that you “are” on ice. Nothing has changed since you went on recess till today, especially if you believe they new about the acquisition.

Since I was the author of my post I know what the intent was. It was that you need to look at the whole picture and stop thinking emotionally and act intelligently.

More so out of curiosity what makes you think the NMB is ready to place you back into mediated sessions and if they did why would they release you?