I watched the video. I agree with some parts and disagree with others.
He mentions our real leverage as "unity". I agree that it our real leverage, but at Fedex, it barely exists. We work for an airline that is always undermanned. The company knows that we will ***** ourselves as a group. We are in a great position to negotiate a much improved contract, yet we can't get people to stop flying disputed pairings. Honestly, if things went real bad and we actually walked the picket line, how many would cross? 20-30-40%? I don't know, but my guess is that it would be pretty high. High enough to basically render a strike unsuccessful.
So, if you buy the fact that our unity isn't our actual leverage, what is? I do think the company wants the FDAs, it allows for a significant cost savings and allows us to carry less pilots. I believe it is some leverage. Probably enough to fix the problem areas of our contract, which are really nickels and dimes. We're "paying" to fix a contract loophole (4.A.2.b.) but we know how much this can cost us. Much more than a 3% raise. And it's very possible that the company will never use this contract loophole again, but it just isn't worth the chance.
I'd prefer to send it back to the table, and rework a few sections and make a deal. We'll pay for removal (or better yet, changes) to 4.A.2.b. later. It is serious negotiating capital that the company owns and we want to change. They want to come after our retirement (maybe age 65 instead of 60?). Are we willing to trade these two? Before we sign anything with the company, I think we are making a huge mistake to not take care of 4.A.2.b. Some of the other petty things (and a low cost really) are accepted fares, min pay for reserve day (how often is it usually below 4.5 hours/day anyway?), real time trip trading, etc. These are, in the scheme of things, chump change for the company.
Honestly, we could wrap this thing up in no time and have a real contract. I am OK with a 3% raise and a few items cleaned up. I think many of us are as well.
But, the TA will pass. We'll have to deal with 4.A.2.b later and that will hurt our chances of improving the contract. The company's incentive to talk to us will be gone. We have taken our eye off the ball. Remember the union's rolling counter showing the cost of 4.A.2.b. And we are settling for 3%?