Here is the sad reality. After the company tweaks their offer sometime soooonnnnnn, and only to the executive negotiating committee, that's going to be it and things will be 100% shut down for the next 3-5 years. The company is in great shape and is willing to accept collateral damage from disgruntled employees according to "Superfly" as the company saw no indication that it received any credit for the profit sharing, big raises, etc., as both unions leadership continued to foster to its membership that the company was the bad guy. So, even with a JCBA, the company fully realizes that it will be seen as the bad guy given the harsh bankruptcies that has fostered such a negative image, according to superfly. The company is preparing to move on to the other work groups which will have contracts due up soon and most likely shelve TWU/IAM talks until section 6 then restart everything all over but at a much slower pace. All of that according to superfly and should be taken as hearsay and entertainment value but I sorta believe it.
The offer is clearly not acceptable, imo, but the problem is that the IAM always talks really tough but then folds like a Big Tent Folding Chair after a couple years and takes less than what was originally offered. We have very stupid and dumb people negotiating for us. Sito had a GED but then got a makeshift diploma at the Labor college. His vocabulary is about 100 words, mostly F this and F That. A real dummy indeed. If he held out and kept what we have then good for him, but I don't make bets against history. I believe Superfly and the company pretty much got most everything it needed anyways with the cross utilization (Didn't NYer warn us about that coming back to haunt us?). But, from my perspective, why bother with a new JCBA since LUS pretty much has the best contract in the industry right now and would drop significantly with a new JCBA? Again, the problem is that that union always folds, once the company starts digging in on the dues, it flips like a pancake. When the company moves to announce the closure of a few TWU stations, and perhaps putting a few hundred PHL jobs up for bid, there will be nothing the union can do other than to hold its position (insert smart move here) or fold and hose all of us.
And even though our LUS health care will be toast without a JCBA in 2022 unless they postpone the Cadillac tax one more time, we still have solid scope, which to me is the Holy Grail. Take a few years in negotiations and do it right. Sito needs to put his big boy pants on and keep them on for years to come, if that's what he has left.
And FWIW, Parker really did want to shut down talks after the last offer but that Johnson dude insisted on tweaking the offer a nudge prior to shutting down JCBA talks and proceeding to section 6......all according to Superfly. Take it for what it is worth but thus far Superfly been SPOT ON.
Time will tell.