The NMB is a separate government entity that is solely tasked with administering the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and overseeing collective bargaining for railroad and airline employee groups.

Here's how it works:

- When a contract becomes amendable (reaches the end of its duration period), you start negotiating directly with the company on the items that you want to change. The company can also submit items that they want to change.
- When you've stopped making progress with direct negotiations, you can ask the National Mediation Board (NMB) to assign the case to one of their professional mediators to assist in working out the remaining open contract issues. This is the stage that Horizon is starting now.
- When the NMB determines that you're at an impasse and making no further progress in mediation, they will proffer binding arbitration to both parties.
- When one of the parties rejects binding arbitration (as they always do), then the NMB begins a 30-day "cooling off" period. During this time, negotiations usually continue almost constantly in a last-ditch effort to reach a contract.
- At the end of the cooling off period, both parties are free to engage in "self help," which means the employees can strike, or the company can impose their own terms.

So, it's a lengthy process. The average time for airline labor to reach an agreement in negotiations under the RLA is about 20 months. It's been much longer during the Bush years, as his NMB was strongly anti-labor, but the new Obama NMB seems to be aiming for the traditional standard of about 1.5-2 years in negotiations.

This is typical of a Teamsters contract, unfortunately. Too much focus on pay, not nearly enough focus on work rules and other issues. That may work for truck drivers, but it doesn't work for pilots.

I understand that a group of your pilots may be looking into ALPA representation. I hope your pilots decide to go in that direction.

You may have just opened up a new can of worms.

I hate to jump to conclusions, but I thought our pilot group wasn't going for any type of payrate increase. The challenge is improving our contract.

Maybe so. To be honest, I could care less. I only mentioned it to further illustrate how QX guys and gals are inundated with "the next best thing" as far as technology goes.

Heck. . .even in the sim, our training department throws in an RNP approach which we weren't certified to do in the Q400 for a long time.

I still get paid the same either way.

I have no idea what improvements to your CBA are being sought. Of course, one improvement is pay rate adjustments in an upward direction. Cost of living increases are a fact of life and to seek other "improvements" without including these would be akin to stepping on the accelerator of a car with the brake partially engaged.

Hopefully, the IBT will show more ingenuity in that effort then the motivation statement they hijacked from ALPA.

Just because they are the best paid does not make them properly paid. We ALL, no matter what you are flying are not getting paid enough and the work rules no matter where you work could use some improving.

Again, Horizon pilots are NOT the best paid. We have decent hourly rates but with nonexistent work rules.

I thought Boom boom was the funniest (sarcasm). Best of luck to y'all!

I was only replying to the poster. I honestly don't know what you make only that it is not enough.