Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnDeere
All the AT people (except MC) and all the ALPA support staff had left for home. The MC was more or less autonomous so they were on their own schedule.
No progress, no results.
The MC was packing up to leave when the SWAPA guys showed up with a six pack and said, in effect, let's talk.
So, now with no support network, 4 line pilots from AT agreed to sit down with the SWAPA MC for, I'm told, some VERY long days until an outline for the AIP was hammered out.
The AT reps (MEC) had little to no input since they weren't aware the talks were ongoing. The 7-1 vote could have been avoided, in my opinion, if the normal process had been followed.
The story is considerably longer but that is the readers digest version I was given by one of the Airtran MC delegates. And, yes, I fault our guys for not saying, "no, we'll be back next week."
That's how the AIP was derived. 4 guys acting on their own. All good people; I know them. But they were lured into the trap and fell for it.
The MC then told our MEC (all flying full schedules, mind you) that this was better than the deal Gary offered and probably wouldn't get any better. (Stockholm syndrome?) The team then returned to hammer out the complete language which, coincidentally, was well under way when our MC got back to Dallas (see twitter feeds for details.)
Now I don't blame your MC for anything they did. I blame our guys for staying without legal staff. They should have walked away and talked another day. But the result is the abortion of an AIP that has caused so much rancor.
Flame away. But at least talk to YOUR MC first.
So, you honestly believe that the AIP was negotiated and agreed to by the MC solely on their own with no input from the MEC? If this is the case then there truly is some dysfunction going on over there.
The first problem I have with this scenario is: This deal was put forth by SWA, not SWAPA.
The second problem I have is: You state negotiations went on for some very long days. ALL these days of negotiations were carried out while the MEC was completely in the dark about the process? What kind of an association would have on going negotiations of a deal of this magnitude without any support or counsel from lawyers, ALPA National OR the MEC.
The third problem I have is: You insinuate that SWAPA got your guys drunk to agree to this deal (when of course it was SWA's deal not SWAPA's). Did they continue to keep everyone all liquored up for the multiple days they were negotiating this deal with SWAPA, or was the liquor only used to dupe them into these stand alone negotiations on day one? If indeed the six pack ran out, why with the clear head of sobriety would they ever have agreed to this "abortion of an AIP" as you call it?
04-06-2021
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