Parking brake. Logbook.

 

The NMB’s job is to settle the dispute without an interruption to interstate commerce. They only care about unfairness to the extent that it doesn’t slow down the settling of the dispute.

The NMB will put pressure on whichever side exhibits more susceptibility to settling. That side is almost always the less educated and less informed side. That side is almost always labor. Thus labor ends up believing the RLA hamstrings them when, in reality, their own lack of awareness holds them back. You need more than a RLA flowchart/1st grade understanding of RLA dynamics to be successful when you’re going up against highly competent airline management groups and their paid assassins like FordHarrison.

The NMB can and does lie to one side or the other as a tactic to create pressure in order to spur on the settlement of a dispute. Labor, almost always the less educated and informed side, is typically targeted more by the NMB for lies and half-truths in an attempt to get them to settle because they are easier to lie to. Management is more difficult to lie to because they’re much smarter about the RLA.

I’d be curious which regional you were at and exactly how the story played out.

 

Republic. Weren’t asking for the moon. Soft pay and rates commensurate with peers.

Company was more interested in union busting and stalling until they absolutely had to come to the table. There was nothing in good faith about the garbage they pulled.

 

A fundamental difference between Republic and Southwest is that we own and fly under our own code. The “book away” concept is very real, and there’s a world of difference between a regional airline that nobody knows as Republic vs. a household name like Southwest Airlines.

 

Agreed. Still didn’t prevent SWA from stalling for 4 years. One could argue the industry is pretty different in 2020 vs 2012-16. I’d say the ball in more on our side of the court now but time will tell.

 

What RJSAviator said, and...

Questions I’d have about Republic’s case to start would be:
1) When was the CBA’s amendable date?
2) When was mediation filed for?
3) When was strike authorization taken? What was result?
4) Any accusations of illegal job actions?
5) Any motions filed by Republic management against the pilots?

SWA’s mechanics were also in negotiations and mediation for 7+ years. That’s not evidence that the RLA is broken. That’s a direct result of the mechanics not playing the RLA game well.

To begin with, they waited more than 3 years from their contract amendable date until they filed for mediation. They had at least two motions filed against them for illegal job actions. They even had a no strike clause in their CBA (of dubious enforceability). All of those things and more set them up for 7+ years for a new CBA.

They were their own worst enemy. They got outplayed by a smarter management team. Victory goes to the smarter side.

And SWAPA’s last round of negotiations and mediation? Similar story. There are perhaps 50 pilots within our group who have more than a first grade understanding of the RLA, including, many within SWAPA. That’s why TA1 nearly passed and that’s why our CBA lags the industry in many important ways.

If an adequate number of our pilots understood the RLA, you wouldn’t have heard and continue to hear things like:

1) We’ll never get released (as if that’s the only thing that matters and the case is therefore closed).
2) The NMB will just put us on ice forever (ergo, we might as well vote yes sooner than later)
3) The President will just shut down any strike (therefore, we have no leverage under the RLA).
4) The RLA is stacked against labor (it’s not - it’s stacked against the less intelligent side).
5) The NMB will just drag our mediation for years (this is a variation of the “they’ll put us on ice forever” argument. But there’s some truth that they will allow us to stay in mediation longer than we like if we don’t play the game well).

 

1. Amendable Oct 2007. Started negotiating in April. TA ratified Nov 2015.

2. My memory isn’t that great. Went through multiple mediators though.

3. Don’t know the date for that either. Over 99% voted to strike. Nothing happened.

4. Not that I can recall.

5. Not that I recall.

Bedford and Heller were the idiots who “successfully” argued that a 100 seat airplane didn’t have 100 seats because they didn’t intend to sell a ticket for the last seat. Therefore it didn’t exist.

They took the seat back off and made it a coffee table. All to avoid paying pilots a higher pay rate.

And then refused to pay pilots the same pay for Dash -8 aircraft with the same number of seats as the ERJ. Because it was had props.

And also refused to hold vacancy bids for new aircraft/bases because senior people bid it and it would cost training events. It was cheaper to displace people around and call it a “displacement vacancy”. Whatever the hell that is...wasn’t defined anywhere in the CBA.

Trying to get anything done with those morons is like arguing with Bill Clinton on what the definition of “is” is.

 

BTW... I'm more than willing to give up the following "hard-won gains":

- DTC limits
- STC base-shopping
- Perfectly willing to exchange GDO's for various items. One GDO per item.
- TGDO, particularly for ETOPS training.

Just a few off the top of my head...

 

What? Those were hard earned, SWApA "GAINS"!

 

All the more reason to offer them up to show our flexibility and "willingness to give something up."