This is part of the huge mess created by the then ALPA MEC.
isv
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Very true, along with the fact that ALPA National was mainly driven by pilots from other airlines that wanted to see USAirways "just go away" to solve the over capacity problem in the industry and make their companies more healthy.
The messes created by ALPA, ALPA National, USAir management, LOAs, the Nic award, USAPA....just wherever you want to put the blame for today......have gotten worse and worse. It's like an unsolvable Rubic's cube.
I don't want to take anything from anyone in the West and I suspect the same is true for most West pilots. I would like to see us just start over and find some kind of middle ground that we can live with. We will not all be happy, but I think we can do much better than this.
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My sentiments exactly. The NIC is fatally flawed and certainly not considered, at least by the East, to be "fair and equitable". If it was, the West wouldn't want it so bad and the East wouldn't be so opposed to it. Both sides have spent over 4 MILLION dollars, to date. Nobody spends that kind of money unless they are totally committed to prevailing. So far, everyone concerned (except the company and ALL the lawyers) are big losers. As pilots we should all be smarter than this.
ALPA failed the pilots of this airline miserably. The process never should have gotten to the point of mutually opposing firing squads. The dues hit to ALPA National was a real wake-up call for them, that's why they promptly rewrote their merger policy.
http://www.alpa.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=WpYTk6T1Hs0%3D&tabid=3345
Had they not done so and the next two mergers gone as badly, they would be OUT OF BUSINESS with the potential loss of DAL, NWA, United and Continental. By separating seniority integration from the JCBA and establishing a new policy that must consider, when constructing a fair and equitable integrated seniority list, in no particular order and with no particular weight, must now include but is not limited to; career expectations, longevity, and status and category. The order and weight of these factors is a matter to be determined by the specific pilot groups involved in the merger being consummated.
ALPA is correct in now separating seniority from the rest of the contract. By doing so the company is precluded from holding the rest of the contract hostage to the ALWAYS difficult process of reaching a seniority agreement, which is why ALPA also decided to incorporate the use of a panel of three arbitrators, if necessary, as the standard for the new merger policy. As both I and "Dougie" have stated before, the company DOES NOT CARE how seniority is decided, outside of covering their ass liability wise and with respect to minimizing additional training costs. It could be argued with the latter, that the company would prefer an agreement which maintained the status quo.
With very few exceptions, I have seldom met a pilot who didn't just want to fly their favorite airplane and forget about the company once the brake is set after the last leg of the trip. Favorite airplane being defined as the one that pay's the most and provides the best possible quality of life afforded by ones position on the list.
How do we get there from here? If either side prevails in their seniority positions as currently envisioned, flying at this airline will become a living hell! We've all flown that four day trip from hell, trapped in the cockpit with the biggest flaming jerk-off who ever passed a checkride. Does anybody really want to deal with that sort of environment for the next however many years.
seajay
