What risk do we have? We literally have nothing to lose. If the arbitrator rules against us (and that’s possible), then what good is a contract? Every other airline management is playing close attention to this ruling. Ruling against the pilots in this case would set a very bad precedent.

It is surprising the company has not tried to renegotiate considering objective arbitration should show this is a clear cut violation of the contract.

At this point it seems too late to renegotiate, unless they can at the last minute or after arbitration.

Their messaging campaign is clear. “All this growth...all because of the NEA!!!” in every email. They are trying to show with all this messaging that not only was there no harm from the “disagreement about the contract,” but in fact a bunch of benefit to the pilot group. They will try to tell the arbitrator that this deal is in our best interest, and they are banking on getting a favorable ruling. They also will point out that every single one of our union leaders, save for the 2 JFK guys, as well as national, thought this deal was awesome (thanks to the sell job) as support for their case. In their eyes, worst case scenario: cease and desist the focus city to focus city/international, forcing the need to renegotiate only after an arbitrator says so, if they want that stuff codeshared. Best case for them: continue with business as usual with a huge arbitration victory, setting precedent for all future CBA violations, including scope. Which is dumb...why would they even negotiate for LOA13 section 1 relief if they thought they could do it anyway. But at this point, renegotiating is admitting and accepting defeat before they even have a chance to screw us. They won’t give up an opportunity to try when the downside for them is estimated to be no worse than a cease and desist. I’d love for them to get slapped with a huge fine just to deter them from doing this crap again, but I’m not optimistic.

I think the outcome from arbitration will be poor for the pilot group.

You have two parties before the arbitrator who actively fought for the LOA to be passed. B6ALPAs sell job was the stuff of legend. You think they are going to put up a strong defense in front of the arbitrator? They were actively pitching for us to give away scope essentially for free! Now they get to be the ones "defending our contract"?

Not holding my breath.

This right here is what scares me the most.

The MEC and national wanted this. I’m sure they are gonna go full bore [emoji849]


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If they don’t fight for our contract in arbitration and roll over then they should all be recalled.

is there way to get the notes from the arbitration so we know what was said?

we need the “minutes” of the meeting.

The problem, I would think, of renegotiating AFTER a cease and desist order is the pilots would then have ALL the leverage. I would be surprised the company would let it get to that point, but I've been wrong before...

That's assuming the company feels compelled to abide by the arbitrators ruling. They can easily just ignore it and tell us to sue them if we want. That buys them another year or 2 until we can take them to federal court.

Meanwhile the NEA keeps chugging along and they can then throw us another bone 18 months from now to try and get a 50.1% pass vote. Problem solved on their end and now we get a 2.5% raise, an "enhanced" FLICA waiting room and something like increasing PTO accrual another :15 per month for our troubles....