Once again, you miss the mark by a mile. As I said, I didn't agree with USAPA's method of Nic abatement. I didn't think you could get around binding arbitration and the best we could do would be to vote no on a contract until the west decided it was in there best interest some kind of relief.
You say that USAPA is just trying to delay the Nic. Let me assure you, that is not what they are trying to do. They are trying to bury it so it will never see the light of day. When I say "appeal", I don't mean in the classic term, but as there is more than one way to skin a cat. Will they succeed? I've always had my doubts, but I'm not a lawyer, and there seem to even be a number of them that disagree, so we will have to wait for a judge/jury to tell us for sure.
You ask why all the wasted time and wasted money. It's for the same reason YOU are wasting time and money. Your side could stop fighting, tell the company you will accept a DOH list and let's get a contract. But you won't, right? You feel that it is worth the cost and it looks like, for now, the majority of east feel the same. There are things out there that could change that view, but I don't think there anything the west can do to speed it along. I think the west can slow it down. That's where making enemies comes in. I know the east has made enemies. You don't seem to agree with any other east idea, why would you adopt that one?
As far as the TA goes, it pretty much does allow for us to avoid/delay the award, that's what a yes or no vote will do, but we have to get there first. I haven't seen any great offer thrown out by the company and I'm not going to push USAPA to lower the bar and vote on some POS just to see how the vote will go. Would you support going to the company an telling them "Give us your best offer and we will put it out for a vote"? There is NOTHING to vote on right now and I think the company is playing this in order to keep their cost advantage. Talk to Doug and the boys about that.
As far as the ability to delay goes, lynrdskynrd gets it.
