Originally Posted by TJohn (Post 1259938)

Hey sled, I agree with you 1000%. This is #%$@ed. LUAL are BOHICA'ed again. But, I have always asked this when fellow pilots complained: what can be done about it? There has always been blustery talk by guys on the line and ALPA reps in the press. I recall when the gas prices were spiking out of control, mgmt announced to the press that UAL will park the 737s, starting with all the older ones and the newer ones too if gas prices continue going up. I recall reading in the papers, an MEC rep responding to the press that "we won't let the company do that! That is in violation of the block hours agreement" (paraphrasing). I don't know how they got around the block hours thing (if in fact a part of the CBA) but we all know what happened. That was just one example that I thought was the best example of ALPA/MEC's all talk, no action threats. So, besides voting NO on this TA and continue to vote NO for future crappy TAs, what can we do about it? I feel like we are fighting with both hands tied. Unless we as a national union really start to make waves to the point of declaring we will do "whatever it takes" regardless of whether it's legal and in accordance to the RLA, we won't get anywhere. It's almost as if the labor movement has to happen all over again. After all, it wasn't legal to do a lot of the things that were done back in the days when labor was first fighting for the right to organize and be represented, and strike if necessary.

BTW, I have always liked the nuclear option.