I have to tell you.....after reading the AOL mailing, the West bring up some very good points. In fact, I have to agree with a lot of what they have to say. Interesting enough, no one on this board has rebuted anything in the mailer. Hmmm!!! wonder why?
Actually I did in a post. You must have missed it. Here's an excerpt of what I was talking about:
If the East contingent to the Joint Negotiating
Committee (JNC) had not walked out, “close out” negotiations
would likely have
yielded a compromise around $162, which approximates the New Delta Air Lines
rate. East pilots
have given up at least a 30% pay increase for nearly three years.
They correctly state 'likely" then incorrectly state "have given". That is an assumption that a joint contract was possible. I countered that per the TA we have to have a joint contract prior to the implementation of a joint seniority list and the Nic combined with the Kirby proposal made that a tough row to hoe. Our F/As do not have a seniority fight and they still don't have a joint contract. If a joint contract was not possible, we haven't given up anything. I also stated that $162 was not what was, or is, on the table according to Kirby.
Most of the document contains facts, but I have issue with how some are used. For example, they quote Cleary from an Airwaves article about the handling of furloughed pilots, but don't include the whole article. They state that in Allegheny-Mohawk the furloughed pilots all went below active pilots, but didn't add that with Republic-Hughes Airwest there were furloughed Hughes pilots inserted above active Republic. Also, the graph of pilots position on the Nic was a snapshot and ignores the effects going forward.
The rest of it has been beaten to death. I don't really want to go around and around about it.
Maybe the mailing achieved what AOL was looking for, to get enough east pilots to get angry and join them. Can I take from your post you agree?
I have yet to talk to another east pilot that admits to reading it.