Quote:
Originally Posted by Scoop
PG,
This is a very interesting topic which can not be adequately covered on a webboard. I feel that the fact that we are so intimidated by legal action against us, actually hurts our credibility when we start to huff and puff during negotiations. Being so "rational" may actually be a negative in bargaining.
Now do not misinterpret me - I am not saying we should be irrational, but perhaps the threat of irrationality, if taken seriously, could help us. I am aware of a few cases where unions took illegal job actions and the illegality was soon forgotten or dismissed when a settlement was reached. There are other times (air traffic controllers - 1981) that the unions got clobbered. My point is not to drive off a cliff but maybe if our bargaining adversary (management) thought for a second that we "might" actually drive off a cliff (with them in the car and without golden parachutes) they may be more "agreeable" in negotiations. Granted, this is a hard thing to do but do we even try?
I think that we missed many opportunities over the years to do this. The Greenslip issue quickly comes to mind. If memory serves (and if it doesn't I'm sure that I will be quickly corrected) we attempted a "No green-slip" initiative during contract 2000 negotiations. We were slapped down by the courts because it was a change to the status-quo and DALPA acquiesced - all well and good. Fast forward a few years to the "dark-times" of 2003-2005. green-slips go to 1.5 x pay and only over the CAP. Guess what - there was now no status-quo, and we had pilots on furlough. Did we take advantage of this? No-guys green-slipped like crazy and we missed an opportunity to aggressively assert ourselves and ended up doing squat. Would this have been a good opportunity to have been much more aggressive - I think so and if there is a good reason why we didn't I have yet to hear it.
Bottom Line is being too predictable may not benefit us. What if we all "threatened" to quit? I guess thats an illegal job action, but what would management do? We cannot be forced at gunpoint to fly. I guess if we all quit we could be replaced - that would suck, but could we be replaced quick enough to not damage the company? The mere mention of it might rattle management - after all it sounds crazy. Notice that I am not saying that we actually all quit just threaten to quit.
I am not proposing or recommending any specific action but merely suggesting that our predictability and conservative track record is now being successfully used against us and we should consider thinking outside the box if needed in the future.
Scoop
Thanks Scoop. I tend to not waste my time with long replies to people like PG that will never change their way of thinking. This pilot group, in general, is pathetic. Delta knows we will never strike. So while the Premier Global Airline, or Global Premier Airline, or whatever it is, continues to pay their managers top of the industry pay, we will be somewhere in the middle class.
I still stand in my statement that we only get what we demand. If our contract sucks, it's our fault.
BD
02-27-2021
