Originally Posted by Privateer89

Interesting that we have not heard the company team’s response to this yet.

Originally Posted by Privateer89

Interesting that we have not heard the company team’s response to this yet. Either they are going to come out and try to convince us of their industry leading progress in some snide way, or they may actually be planning to pivot from their destructive stance as we go into the busiest summer ever with the most disgruntled pilot group ever. I’m guessing the first option.

Originally Posted by Lewbronski

IMO, it's really hard to say without being in the negotiating room with the NC if it was premature or not. Attempting to read the tea leaves, given the status updates we've received over the last several months and our continued willingness to "help pilots by helping the company" with agreements like the LRF deal we just inked, my impression is that we are nowhere near an impasse. However, that may not, in reality, be the case if the NC and SWAPA leadership have genuine reason to believe we are at a true impasse. The request for release from mediation indicates that an impasse may truly exist.

If the NMB denies the request for a proffer of arbitration, it may embolden the company to slow things down. However, it seems like they're awfully emboldened already, anyway. How much worse off would we be if the company slowed things down even more? Any more slowing and they could start to skate onto legal thin ice in terms of bad faith bargaining.

But, as I've stated before, neither the NMB nor the company can make mediation go on forever. The company can only slow things down for so long. The NMB can only slow things down for so long. As long as we are playing the RLA game as it needs to be played, and we're all staying the legal course, eventually the company will have to move toward our position or face a release (and all that a release entails).

As far as when is the earliest another request can be made goes, that's entirely up to SWAPA. The RLA doesn't specify any requirement that a request for release be made at all, though it seems like it has become the custom. This is what the text of the RLA says about the process from after mediation is requested through the conclusion of mediation:

Originally Posted by tlamjaj

The thing with the widebody pay rates that nobody seems to be mentioning is that there is not a single airline in the world that has 10,000+ pilots on widebody pay rates. An airline flying only 737s is not going to be the first.

Originally Posted by RJSAviator76

If the work rules and soft money are in, I'll happily consider A321neo and 757/767 rates. Soft money is where it's at. Screw up the work rules and soft money, and getting Delta A-350 pay rate could in effect become a paycut. The devil is always in the details.

There's A LOT of stuff that needs fixing and incentivizing/disincentivizing. Additionally, messing with the sick leave bank is a nonstarter for me. Our collective sick leave is easily worth 10 figures in liability. In fact, giving them an inch off our sick leave balance could essentially be paying for the whole contract..... So if they want to wipe that liability off the books, then the question to ask the company would be the same one they ask love to ask us - what are you willing to give up for it?

Originally Posted by tlamjaj

The market will 100% be working as it should and we will be getting a pay rate that matches it. We aren’t getting Delta 350 captain rates to fly 737s. There’s a reason why the “SWAPA in the know” jumpseater said that. It’s the truth, not self-limiting. I trust our negotiators.

i have plenty of concerns that will lead me be a no vote. Not topping out at 350 captain rates isn’t one of them.

Originally Posted by sailingfun

Years ago the revenue generation per flight 737 flight hour was compared to a 777 and the difference was staggering. In the tense 2000 contract negotiations at Delta the CEO stated he did not mind paying a 777 CA $500 per hour as the airframe could easily support it. The problem he said was if he paid that we would demand 400 an hour for a 737 CA and it could not generate the revenue needed.

Originally Posted by Stitches

Well, if all 10,000 swa pilots were getting paid widebody rates, then they wouldn’t be widebody rates anymore. They would be 737 industry standard rates, problem solved…