I can not speak of Lakefield, Wolf and Gangwal of their travel preferences. I will say that I had both wolf and gangwal on my aircraft at different times and don't recall seeing anyone like you discribed with them. I had heard of the rumor you mentioned about bodygaurds, however.
Sorry for requesting this for clarification but by "West pilots SENIORITY" do you mean longevity or something else?
In reply to one of the few who did not boycott the presentation, I understand he had a lot to say, including that he did 'not like the nic.' He said he likes to fly 99 hours every month and more or less wanted his share of the PBGC money. His arguments was initially that he prefered PBS over line bidding.
I can only speculate about an outcome that isn't on the table, but I would guess it would contain considerable fencing. But that is just an opinion. What I would really like to know is what is it with the nic that y'all want so bad. Put aside your argument about final and binding for a moment. Do you want to fly out of the bases in the east? Do you want to fly the wide body equipment? Do you want the east attrition? Do you want furlough protection? Or...Do you want all of the above?
Many on here seem to think that we(the east pilots) have stolen something from the west. Personally, I don't see it that way. If Capt. 99hrs. a month(see above) with a date of hire of 12/12/83 and now less than 4 years wants to fly anywere outside of PHX and LAS, the C&R allow him to do that and since he was hired about 10 months before me, he would have seniority over me and I have no problem with that. I can also assure you that I have no intentions of ever bidding out west.
By Seniority, I mean Seniority. The status and rank obtain from service to your respective company. That is what was combined in the Nicolau award. Not relative longivity, not DOH, not where would a West pilot fall had he been hired at one of your former companies.
To be clear, a West pilots SENIORITY, was obtained by working for AWA. Not, where would his AWA DOH place him/her on the east's list. We were not added to the east list, and our respective DOHs are irrelevant. The C&Rs do not protect West pilot's SENIORITY.
In regards to the Senior West pilot who attended the usapa road show. Of course he does not like the Nic, it threw 517 east pilots immediately ontop of him, any of which could come to phx and knock him down a notch. To which I say, too bad so sad. That is the the right afforded all of us by our combined SENIORITY, and I have no problem with east pilots coming to PHX senior to me on the Nic, for the same reasons you give if he wanted to bid east.
Each case turns on its own merit. The east bases, the widebodies, east attrition, furlough protection, aircraft orders, everything was already factored into the Nic. The combined seniority list allows us all to share any gain or pain equitably. DOH with C&Rs does not do that, favors the east at the West expense, and has continuously been rejected as an equitable means of integrating the two groups. So here is what the West pilots want, we want a cohesive pilot group, capable of carrying this airline into the future. The only way for that to happen is honoring the results of the binding arbitration we all entered. Fool me once, shame on you, and since you already showed your hand, we are not going to get to fool me twice.
In regard to our management team. I will give my opinion, and it is completely opposite of popular opinion. We have a very good management team, once ranked as excellent but we lost one of the best players. These people can pull more rabbits out of a distressed company's hat then just about anyone. They are completely willing to spend money on infrastructure if they can see a return on investment either financially or in improving the company efficiency. Same goes for the "it is the right thing to do" contract. They want to run like a team, and they want you on it. But until you learn that the competition is not Tempe or the West pilots, but Southwest, Jetblue and Virgin America, and you start flying and bargaining with that in mind, they are going to hold us all down ruthlessly. BTW, that USA Today ad was the absolute stupidest thing usapa could have possibly done. If you think usapa and Seham are going to outsmart or intimidate Parker, Kirby and LCC, in the court, in contract negotiations or in how to run this company, all I can say while remaining polite is, think again.
But, keep the faith, we can easily get to an industry standard contract, once usapa tackles the steep learning curve that so far they have ignored. I hear there are three West reps willing to join the NAC as tutors.
