When I was in the left seat of a 737 it was $76/hr. I'm all about a no vote.

Just remember 38 percent will vote YES for anything. The company only needs 12.01 percent more , anything more than 12 percent is overkill and a waste of bonus money that can go to the C suites .

This is the truth, in fact has to be mgmt's goal. Anything over 51% approval is wasted money in mgmt's view. Just like pilots would love a contract that passed 90%-10, mgmt would see that as a big fail.

What’s the background on the 38% number?

It's how many people voted yes for TA1, an awful TA. It's also a stale argument, in my opinion, to think the pilot group has the same appetite for mediocrity given recent events of the past couple years. 1400 pilots showing up to the first picket of this round should tell them things are different, but they like to sing that same song.

I agree that 1,400 pilots showing up for a picket is a good thing. However, how many pickets will it take for management to feel enough pressure to hand us an industry-leading contract with lifetime career compensation, retirement, work rules, disability, and ancillary provisions worthy of our contribution to the success of SWA?

After a certain number of pickets, will our pilots grow tired of attending them? Will they continue to get the attention the last one did in the media and in the public eye? Will management begin to look at them as us crying wolf?

Even if we file for mediation now, is this pilot group patient enough to wait the two to three years minimum for that leverage to mature? Or will they lose patience and settle for a lesser offer in the interim?

Is the pilot shortage really an issue that executives in the airline industry believe is a critical issue? If you answer yes, then why did Scott Kirby and the corporate board of directors at UAL allow a near-concessionary TA to go to the membership for a ratification vote if they are truly concerned about attracting pilots from the supposedly very limited pool of pilots all the major airlines are competing for?

Are we banking on the “one-two punch” idea of a pilot shortage combined with pickets to take us into the end zone? Is that enough? How long will that take to produce a worthy contract? Is this pilot group patient enough?

A whole lot of hypotheticals that nobody knows the answer to. How many yes voters retired? how many of the 1221 warn recipients will vote yes? How many of the 1400 picketers will vote yes? how many regional pilots have we hired lately vs military? This isn't their first rodeo and they haven't been conditioned to say yes the last 20 years. "38% will vote yes" is still an outdated argument simply because the dynamics of the pilot group have changed.

Grab your pitchforks boys and girls. It’s ******ing time to get ours. As a matter of fact, we are at a crossroads and it’s absolutely CRITICAL that we get ours.

Historical inflation combined with the most leverage that we’ll probably have in our careers means that it’s absolutely critical that we don’t ****** this round of negotiations up.

I 100% agree it’s time to get ours. It was time to get ours in 2016 also. And in 2012.

I’m not trying to be antagonistic, but what is our leverage right now? If it’s the pilot shortage, then why is UAL management okay with a near-concessionary TA? They’re competing for the same pilots we are. With the information they have available, they must be convinced that they can still recruit enough pilots for their “aggressive growth” strategy even with an anemic contract. Airline management executives might be cutthroat, greedy mother********rs, but most of them aren’t stupid.

If our leverage is inflation, how does that instill fear in management? With record inflation, UAL management was okay with giving their pilot group pay raises that don’t keep up with inflation. Will SWA management be different? Will they be more understanding than UAL management about the effect inflation has had on our lives?

The point of the questions is to point out that we may be pounding the table on issues that don’t really generate much fear in the heart of airline management executives. If we’re going to get an industry leading contract, management has to be compelled to concede to our demands. They’re not just going to benevolently grant us an industry leading contract.

Do pickets by themselves create fear in management? Are bookings down as a result of the picket? Would bookings begin to dip if we conducted x number of pickets or would passengers become adapted to SWA pilots picketing because they realize SWA pilots picketing doesn’t interrupt their travel plans or raise their ticket prices?

I’d argue that filing for mediation, an overwhelming strike authorization vote, AND large pickets might very well create fear in management.

But pickets alone? That seems to be more about an emotional release for pilots than creating real fear in management.