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.
Here we go again with the "It ain't fair unless everyone is unhappy" argument. As BB already pointed out, by your metric, if the east wants DOH so bad it must be good for you and bad for everyone else.
You are wrong. We on the west want to move forward with the arbitrated award because it IS fair, it IS what we agreed to, it IS the middle ground as determined by a neutral third party, and it IS the result of a fair process. We want it even more now than before because of the arrogance of you on the east who thought you could bully us, force your will upon us, and stomp your feet until you got your way. We want it even more now that you have taken all the growth for yourselves, had furloughs come back out of their rightful Nic seniority, and kept us all on industry bottom pay for years with the temper tantrum of the AFO's.
So far, everyone concerned (except the company and ALL the lawyers) are big losers. As pilots we should all be smarter than this.
Not so fast. Don't include us in your "loser" category. We are winning where it counts... in court. It is not a skirmish but a long path paved with victories and setbacks, but we will prevail since we have the law on our side.
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...
The only group holding anyone hostage is USAPA. They have created the circumstances that lead to the entire company being held hostage in this unfinished merger purgatory. So now you want to fault the company for believing that you would honor your agreements and follow through with your commitments.
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.
I'm split on this comment. One part of me sees that maybe reality is starting to set in with you. Out of ammunition, and maybe seeing the end of the road, you now want to appeal to our sensibilities with talk of the "living hell" of a poisonous work environment if we prevail. Well let me tell you, you are right... we've all been trapped in the cockpit for days with someone we'd prefer not to work with. But I have always been able to maintain a professional demeanor, do my job, get my crew to do theirs, and get through those trips safely. As long as the other person can do the same, follow FAR's, adhere to SOP's, operate safely, and serve our passengers as they expect and deserve, then I don't care if they are the most friendly person or just sit there and grunt miserably for 4 days. I come to work to fly airplanes, make money, and provide for my family. The rest is icing. And I can eat cake without icing. My job satisfaction is not dependent on anyone else.
Then there is part of me that respects your apparent desire to find a 'workable solution' and move forward. Unfortunately the time for that has come and gone. It is far too little, far too late for that. You can't try to force you will upon a person, and then when you are unsuccessful, expect them to shake your hand and be friends. You (pl) walked away from JNC talks. You filed frivolous lawsuits attacking our pilots trying to get them fired with that RICO suit. You ended the work we accomplished on our own contract negotiations. You voted ALPA out and took away our individual representation, assuring there is no one left to negotiate with. You tried to get out of binding arbitration. You created the environment.
I my perfect world, I would have been happy to move forward with Nic and a good contract, give you a lions share of the improvements, put the merger behind us, Build a strong airline that would serve us all well in the future, and then maybe talk about other ways to off-set your perceived losses (If they actually materialized) and mend fences. You guys chose a different path. Now we will all live with the results.
