TA Feelings poll
 

For a more nuanced view of the overall strength of this TA.
How do you feel about the TA in terms of your personal situation?

How is there not a worse option?

Exactly. How about swinging with three balls, no strikes, you foul tip it, and it hits Angelina Jolie in the face going 100mph?

Is Brad at bat? Have to know the details to fully be apprised of the situation.

Do you mean the overall weakness of the TA?

So then, nuance? The TA is a turd and needs to be flushed. That said, I’m senior enough that I’ll never be on reserve again unless the majority of our wide body fleet is parked (read triple digits). Will reserve rules affect me directly - no.

I won’t be around long enough to see the scope erosion play out either. But this TA announces loud and clear that United pilots are giving up their exclusive right to “company flying and training”. It will only get worse - just look back at how the RJ Exception letter of 1998 was exploited in subsequent contracts. The original letter was fairly innocuous, but look at all those RJs around the system today.

Neither of these will affect me directly, and all I’m doing by voting no is to walk away from a pay bump. However, this vote shouldn’t be purely about self interest, but at least partially about the profession. In that context, the answer is easy - NO.

Brad is definitely at the plate, but he’s not swinging a bat.

BDE = Big Dck Energy

My no vote reason
 

I'm senior and my no vote has NOTHING to do with me. It has everything to do with sending a clear and blunt message to ALPA. Stop treating legacy Airline pilots like second class citizens behind our cargo brothers and sisters ( with 130k per yr pensions). They have very healthy pensions like had 20 yrs ago. It's high time we get at least some of that back. A 401k is a savings plan not a retirement plan. Pay rates are secondary but should reflect a real raise ( defined as above and beyond the CPI ). The weak language in this TA is beyond disturbing as well with no deadline or penalties to enact the CBP ( as worthless as it is). Puting that in the TA like it's a get when we don't even have it with an open ended date is disingenuous. ALPA is obviously not reading this pilot group and that's because the NC has been isolated for way to long. Voting no is the only way I can retain at least a shred of dignity.

And just like that, out came my coffee. Situation is now FULLY accounted for.

This is not a contract that reflects my contribution to United Next.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Oscar was a breathe of fresh air and spoke to the aspirational values of the airline. Kirby, to be fair, has done a good job at talking the talk and has paid more lip service to the “value of human equity” than any other CEO I can remember (thank you for your professionalism, by the way).

However, when it comes to nut cutting time, you’re nothing but a line item on the cost side of the balance sheet. Nothing more. You’re just a number.

It’s true that fear could make some want to grab the money and run. There’s no doubt that the world is an uncertain place and a recession, war, new pandemic could be right around the corner. Just remember that the company revised Q2 earnings upward and a few weeks before the Q2 call, there’s no change to those forward looking projections.

I’ll take my chances to advocate for a real contract in a few quarters. TKs training bottleneck will still be there.