Flying the Line 3 will say they WERE the best Chest Beaters in the industry!

IT will say they initially proffered phrases like:
"Industry Leading",
"we want released now",
"we have a 99% Strike Vote",
"Hats OFF",
"we'll bring them to their knees."

Then it will say the Chest Beaters backed up and used phrase like:
"It's the best we can get",
"the NMB will park us",
"we are worried about the CAL guys MEC Chair",
"We'll never recoup the time value of money if we vote 'no'"
"What's your back up plan if you vote 'NO'"
"It was Delta's fault for caving on the 76 seater scope"

Then Flying the Line 3 will say:
They beat their chest well and then folded. The Industry hasn't recovered since!

Institutional investment community clamoring for performance out of this merger.

1. Synergies of combining route structures with only 9 overlapping routes prior to the merger. Bethune said it was "checkmate" in the industry.
2. Economy of scale in operations. Elimination of unnecessary and redundant labor as well as management, particularlly in middle management.
3. Labor stability is worth roughly 30 percent of the stock price.

I would say that the glass is either half full or half empty. I say it's half full and I think we have consideable leverage. This was supposed to be the merger of the centuery. If the investment community wants dividends then that's great. Me too. We both have leverage on Jeff. Wall Street as well as labor feel cheated by Jeff.

ALPA sheaded all those strike votes and they used them for confetti for one of their RJ airlines TA's that got ratified.

Unfortunately most pilots do not even know what you are referring to when you mention "Flying the Line"and even fewer have read both books and of those who have read them it seems very few have learned much if anything from their history. The profession continues to act like deregulation never happened, that the RLA is written in stone and that the "associations" act in the pilots best interest. Management has read and fully understands our history and they use this knowledge against us every day.

They used to hand the books out to every new hire...hope that continues.
I agree and am quite sure management would love to drag out and deepen their very effective whipsaw even if they have to cough up some chump change for it.

Does anyone here really believe that the company cares how high the strike vote was? Do your honestly think that they acted differently with a 99% verse if it was 95% or 90%? The simple fact is all they care about is the 3 member vote of the NMB. Until they fear they are going to lose a second vote on that board they do not care about what we say in a strike vote or poll.

Those that have read Flying the Line know that the strike vote is more for the pilots than the company. The vote is to know you and your brothers will stand together. Our vote happened in the vacuum that each pilot group expected to see there current contract filled with only improvements. The complexity of having to merge them and then improve upon them was in my opinion overlooked by most.

Also for those that praise our pioneers that held the line and walked out do not insult them. The contract before you is not perfect, but the conditions in it are not in the same league as those that caused or members to walk out. To compare what we achieved in our TA to what was being offered before a strike was called is just outrageous. If you really hold those brave pilots in high regard do not diminish what they accomplished by using them as a catapult to correct your single issues with our TA.

Here are the links for the downloads to both volumes...

http://www.alpa.org/publications/Fly...The_Line_1.pdf

http://www.alpa.org/publications/Fly...he_Line_II.pdf

Excellent point.

Well stated, I would only add that it would be unfortunate if the lessons from these negotiations are lost in the rhetoric of the special interest groups.

It was widely held by some, that management would be motivated to be generous in this negotiations simply because they had the synergy money of the merger. Well, that proves not to be true, they are still who they are. They will grind down labor simply because they can. They are not worried about, banks, shareholders, employees etc. It is all about setting examples and their ego. It was the naive union representatives of a few years ago that delayed this negotiations with their false expectations that management would change their ways. Future union leaders need to understand the adversarial motivations of the other team.

The second lesson should be that leverage is everything. It is what drives management to cough up the golden eggs. Specifically, the threat of a withdrawal of services. Once it was clear that these would be tripartite negotiation with SLI implications, management knew our gun wasn't loaded.

Thirdly, we don't control how the table is set. Our friends at DAL determined for us how the RJ's would be handled, for now and for far into the future. They thought they got a good deal and maybe it was, for them, but their agreement cut the UAL negotiations off at the knees on this matter.

Lastly, somehow the NMB has become a much larger player than it has in the past. That is because we believe they are, or we have actually let them into the process far beyond their statutory role. At some point, transportation unions may have to take the NMB on, either in court or politically. The last strike was called during a Republican era with a conservative NMB. Labor has a legal right to strike, political appointees should not be able abridge that right.

Assuming that most of those that actually vote, understand the situation on the ground, and the leverage being what it is, not what they wish it was, this TA will pass, but the battle will continue.

Actually the last strike was Spirit Airlines in 2010 under this administration.