OOfff

“even the French”

jesus Christ learn a little labor history

01110011

For real. The French are basically on strike by default.

awax

No kidding, I assumed that all United pilots had done at least one lap in the yellow vest "protests" on a CDG layover.

gzsg

Bottom line? 90% of people are afraid to fly. They are on our side. No one wants to fly with a tired pilot.

When does the red lining end?

5 years? 6?

They are playing with fire. Greedy clueless fools.

Be safe

BlueScholar

When I want informed timely coverage of labor negotiations I know Ben Shapiro is the #1 choice!

Ironically the union screwing the pooch is giving us more leverage. Regional airlines are making more money than United pilots with better work rules. How’s SK gonna fill these 500+ narrow bodies and almost double the number of pilots if you can’t even attract regional pilots to come here? I wouldn’t be surprised if the company ignores the negotiators and just throws us a good contract just to get the show on the road.

awax

I was shocked (really!) that the company didn’t agree to a contract that would be our best recruiting tool. If they wanted to cripple our competitors, that would be one way.

JoePatroni

The allure of locking us up for years, in a POS deal, was too great for them to pass up. Insler and his failed negotiating committee almost drove us off a cliff.

JulesWinfield

That isn't really leverage, though. People at United, by in large, aren't leaving to go elsewhere. Most legacy contracts are roughly equal right now, all things considered, so no one is jumping ship between them. With a recession just now getting started, management can just wait it out and delay as long as possible. As travel demand diminishes, there will be less of a pie to slice up. They won.

JTwift

As a newbie, can someone give me the lowdown on Insler? I read lots of hate about him, but I don’t know anything about the guy (other than he sounds like a career union rep guy).

UALinIAH

Cliff notes version

He came to fame as our Grievance Chairman. Had many high profile wins and a great track record. His detractors said he cherry picked his battles to keep his win % high but bottom line he did great at the position. So when Heppner’s term was up and Todd threw his name in the ring for MC he had almost universal support. I’ve described it to others as he is the classic example of the Peter Principle. He was promoted 1 position above his competence. As MC he achieved absolutely nothing but dividing the pilot group into 1/3rds based on seniority. He was almost a ghost outside of his circle as well. I’ve been at UAL 26 years and can’t remember a time where there was less information given to the pilot group as far as MEC communications. This while in contract negotiations and during the dark Covid time. He blamed the foreign pilots for the crashes of the Max aircraft which was the final straw for many of us flying the plane. (Google it, there are tons of quotes he gave to news outlets about how those pilots should have “flown the plane” or how he didn’t need to know about A/C systems. I believe he said it’s like watching TV, he didn’t need to know how the TV worked). He even convinced the MEC officers to change the policy manual to allow a MC to serve 3 terms vs 2. All he had to show for 6 years as MC was a bunch of MOUs and LOAs and a fractured pilot group. The TA came along and the MEC admitted that the majority of it was negotiated under TIs watch. Meanwhile TI bragged on his Twitter how great the TA was and how we didn’t have to throw a punch.

I’m sure others have more but that is a quick down and dirty off the top of my head.