No offense...but this is the first contract negotiated by the two parties. UAL ALPA vs the company. The last contract was a 3 way negotiation and the two that were negotiating with the company did not have aligned goals.

Add to that, pilots have recently been getting retro checks as opposed to just a signing bonus. So the retro has been re-released into our lexicon. Having said all that, right now there is no motivation for us or the Company to get a deal done. We’re not going cave on scope, so they will be reluctant to give us anything that we want. Just my $0.02...

I would argue against that part of your statement. Daily and continued intentional abuse of the reserve system and short calls. This won't get fixed until we have a contract. Lots of other parts of the contract--still from the bankruptcy black mail, that we very much need fixing. The vacation credit per day anyone? Underwater on PTC for vacation, trip trading system? I can go on. It is in our best interests to get the contract done.

The RJ thing will eventually force the company to the table. Delta continues to kick our corporate asses here. Putting 50 seats on a 70 seat RJ will right fix the ASM costs...

So, I would posit that it is in both our interests to get it done sooner than later. My enthusiasm to be a happy motivated employee seems to be waning.

But are we willing to pay for reserve language that will most likely be marginally better for giving away our scope??? As I’ve said before many times. I will personally vote no on any TA that contains ANY relaxation in scope. I won’t even read past Section One. Automatic no!!!

Delta did.

Exactly!!!

I was talking about CAL/UAL. As we've managed to prove over and over, we're not Delta. :cool:

I do realize that's the case but can you point to any of CAL's or UAL's former after expiration date contracts where either one of our carriers actually got full retro reimbursement?

I certainly can't and our track record speaks for itself.

Perhaps the rush to get the first contract done at any cost is partially to blame for many of those legitimate shortcomings.

That’s right, we’re not Delta!!! We’re not going to give our scope out like it’s Halloween candy!!!