REF 5

This happens every section six negotiations. The realist, the pessimists and the optimists. All come on and set the bar for what should and should not be. SWAPA IMO has done a pretty good job in taking care of it's members and trying to get what they think is the best possible TA not only beneficial to it's membership but also the company long term. Every single proposal they have submitted to the company in and outside of mediation is paid for and then some. The SRC is second to none in the industry. Some provisions are necessary to retain and will cost more(disability for example). Company will have to weigh that out. Everything in contract 2020 IMO are good ask's/gains. Their are no secret's or back door deals. It's all their for you to read. Backed by and written through polling. Which by the way is starting again today. Don't forget to voice your concerns if they call you. In the end it's the NC's job to extract what the membership want's and must's( for a TA to pass). Hopefully SAV motivates SWA. SWAPA and SWA will have to agree on whats the final offer AND the membership will have the ultimate decision to vote it in or not.

Last go around my wants were pretty simple. Job security(scope and code sharing control). Pay(including 100% retro, NEC and reserve pay). Work rules that gave me the ability to get more days off. Since the time we TA'd that one every single year my w2 has gone up except in 2020. My average days off have increased except for 2021 and none of our jobs were farmed out to the lowest bidder.

Definitely need a rewrite of the contract for sure. Disability is what code sharing/scope was the last section six negotiations. JA protections for sure, vacation bidding(already AIP'd). Training scheduling needs to be revamped. ALL in the contract 2020 proposals. We'll see what happens. I would bet that once Delta's TA is ratified you will see movement in a big way at other two carriers. We will plug along until we get deep into section two, four, five, six thru nine(all scheduling). That will probably coincide with SAV results. After that, it will be definitely be up to us. This is my third airline, third SAV and my sixth contract that I hopefully will vote on at some point. Strike committee will be busy sure for the next few months.

MudhammedCJ

No. We voted for that in 2008. "We" STUPIDLY, gave some of it away last time.

Profane Kahuna

What is the pilot version of doom and gloom goth teenager?

You go ahead and keep holding grudges from decades back, the rest of us will be working towards a strong SAV and all the leverage that offers.


.

Lewbronski

There YOU go again, grossly distorting what I'm saying into a straw man argument of your own creation. You do you.

Jim Jordan: working against America?

Ilhan Omar: working against America?

Donald Trump: working against America?

Joe Biden: working against America?

A large percentage of the American population believe two of the above people are working against America while, simultaneously, a large percentage of Americans believe two of those people are working for America. What's the truth? I don't know for sure. Do you?

You and I disagree on what it means to support this pilot group and SWAPA. That doesn't mean I'm working against this pilot group or SWAPA. I don't think I am.

You see things differently. I perceive the unquestioning, unblinking faith in the direction SWAPA is currently taking that you appear to me to espouse to be the sort of mindset that will lead us straight into another industry-lagging contract resulting in what to me are undesirable outcomes like spouses being denied treatment for cancer care, fellow pilots being kicked to the curb as soon as their sick time expires, work rules that treat us like rented mules, significantly less lifetime career compensation versus the Big Three, and a seven-figure deficit in retirement after a 30-year career compared to Delta and United. To me, that's working against the interests of this pilot group.

You probably don't see it that way. That's fine.

And btw, on post 26, off the top of my head, I listed eight reasons why I feel the way I do and I specified that it was a stream of consciousness post - meaning I was writing what came to mind at the time. I'd also add that the only place in "Flight Plan 2020" I can find that talks specifically about "industry-leading" contractual improvements is in terms of retirement.

SlipKid

Everything that's happened in the past few decades has led us right to our current industry lagging contract, which, (while it's inching closer by the day), is not even a decade old.

History has a way of repeating itself around here.

Based on that, I predict that all that the "rest" of you are gonna "work" for is another industry lagging contract. Again.

I sincerely hope I will be wrong (for once), but I am not gonna hold my breath.

Prove me wrong. Please........

WHACKMASTER

It would be foolish to ignore the past behavior of SWAPA and the pilot group. Like it or not it’s probably best that we are educated on it so as not to fall for the same things all over again and agree to a subpar contract.

Profane Kahuna

Why do you keep coming back to things that happened ages ago by people who are no longer here?

SWAPA has taken the historic step of beginning a Strike Authorization Vote and these little ankle biters seem more intent to work against the union instead of with it.

I’ll be voting YES on SAV and supporting SWAPA as much as possible.

REF 5

SWAPA today is the most transparent union by far that I have ever been associated with. Part of it is the company supplies SRC with lots of data. That helps with formulating provisions that benefit us. Their will be always inter political BS that comes with it. Twenty five guys with a twenty three million budget. Run by pilots. What can possibility go wrong? No union is perfect.

As far as agreeing to a sub par contract, that's up to the membership. Not the board or the NC. They literally have ALL our ask's on SWAPA's website. Whether or not that makes it into an AIP we'll see. It's amazing to me when guys ask about what we need and don't even know it's published right in front of them to read.

SlipKid

SWAPA has not been a major part of our problem since 2016, but, ultimately, they're still dealing with this pilot group.

Unlike previous regimes, it is refreshing to finally have a group in there where most of them are at least attempting to improve our lot in life, and not just feathering their caps for a future management job.

Only a few names make me cringe, but they seem to be behaving, or are at least being reigned in these days.


I am personal friends with several of the BOD and committee folks, all of whom are 100% committed to getting us a good contract, and are working to educate the group. The ones I speak to regularly have told me that they're running into the usual apathy, not to mention a surprising amount of Kool Aid, which is incomprehensible to me, given the events of the last few years.

Hopefully, with all of the new blood on our list, many of who have spent at least a few years slugging it out in the regional trenches, we'll finally be able to make some comprehensive contractual gains. At least get us up to industry standard.

An overwhelming YES! on the SAV would be amazing.

REF 5

This pilot group really is no different than any other IMO. Worked for three airlines and been represented by three independent union's and ALPA. The biggest difference in the pilot group is the destination. When I was at the regionals nobody cared about contracts because they were more concerned about getting time and moving on. Here, this is the destination for most of the group. And to be fair SWA wasn't a destination when I started in this business. It became a default because the rest of the industry was bankrupt. Unfortunately CBA's don't move as fast as the airline business. CBA changes normally are a reactive mechanism of the business it work's with. If your lucky sometimes you can ahead of mangement on some stuff but most of the time it's reactive. Aka, you get JA'd into another JA. Guarantee you that was not the intent of the language. Now we have to be reactive to it and put in protection's.

Thats a must.