Quote:
Originally Posted by Bringupthebird
I have reread Nicolau's award in hindsight and agree that the AWA inital proposal did pad the furlough protection, but the numbers are not clear since there are at least 3 separate groups within the furloughee list that should or should not be included and the changing numbers over the course of 2 years it took to come up with the list makes the final number difficult to determine. Whether this was tactical positioning based on the intransigence of the east or simply allowing for the eventual reduction-from-proposal that comes with any award, is neither here nor there. Nicolau spoke.
But the perspective of time and how this has played out makes Nicolau's decision seem even more wise and even-handed than when it first came out. He acknowledged that conditions had improved and that attrition would accrue to the east as it has and that the true conditions of the pilots are not at all correspondent to the position on the list.
Now USAPA has enjoyed 6 years of ill-gotten gains (permanent due to No Bump No Flush) in addition to the 2 years during which the list was determined
and they still have the gall to claim that Nicolau was a windfall for the west. They evade the award though a fake union that has no problem with the suffering of 33% of it's membership in addition to the 60% on the east who labor under an unnecessarily onerous contract so that 7% or so can take an upgrade a little quicker than they could under the Nicolau Award.
So read Nicolau's Award and see if it isn't the voice of reason that should have been heeded in 2007.
B.S. It's perfectly clear which pilots were where. The list followed the award.
I find it hilarious that you speak of the east pilots intransigence. How about the west's? Your line in the sand was that no pilot that was furloughed on May 19th 2005 would go ahead of Odell, even though 300 had returned by the time the award was produced. There was no way that the US merger committee could forward a seniority proposal that put a 17 year LOS guy and a 2 month LOS guy together. You know that. You guys wouldn't come off that so they did what you did, send your best case to the arbitrator with the minimum of C&Rs to start with.
I actually agree with a lot of what Nicolau said, it's just that when you get to the actual list you wonder if he listened to himself.
Time has shown the absurdity of parts of the Nicolau. Forced separate ops have shown that his assumptions were wrong. If not for forced ops we wouldn't have benefited from our attrition, the west would have. I think that is pretty clear since every single west pilot in the captain range if you include the E190, and about 85% of you are if you just go with 737 and larger. Not to mention A330 F/O or 767 F/O.
It's not ill gotten gain, the T/A calls for separate ops, no matter what the reason, until we have a joint contract. Even without USAPA we could still be in the same situation.
It's not a fake union just because you don't like it. I have a lot of issues with it, but it was legally elected and IS our legal CBA.
The Nicolau is not just about upgrade. It's about the overall move up the list and what that brings for guys that have waited for a quarter of a century. It shifts relative % from east to west moving forward. PERIOD.