I see on republicpilots.org that the current contract ended in Oct, and that "Stage 6" mediatons have began. What does that mean, any word on what the pilot group wants to improve (besides pay), and how quickly is a new agreement thought to reached (I know we aren't talking Pinnacle here)?

I don't believe anyone really knows how long this current round of contract negotiations will take. Should be awhile. Until we get new a new contract there are provisions where the current one will continue to be used. Since it in itself is a decent contract it's a good foundation to build on. As far as what they are wanting to improve that is a somewhat closely guarded secret as well. As a pilot group we'd like to see a more well defined contract. There are several "The company shall make an attempt" style statements where they just don't do it and say they made the attempt. We'd like to see more "The company will do this" type of statements. We'd also like to see trip/duty rigs without having to give up junior manning for it. That is one of the greatest things in our current contract. When you have a company in staffing pains you want to make sure you have that no junior manning.

Does the current contract have a commuter clause?

Yes, we do have a commuter clause.