Lewbronski

The sick leave issue for pilots out for an extended period, among many other issues, could have been solved by applying leverage to our contract negotiations. However, again this cycle, we failed to secure solid, specific contract language to address the predicament we now find ourselves in. If you believe SWAPA and 93% of the pilot group, it was at least partly attributable to the belief that we did not have enough leverage to achieve a truly industry-leading contract. That thought was undergirded by an almost complete, and I would say negligent, lack of understanding of the RLA. That, in turn, resulted in a nearly complete failure to leverage the best negotiating environment for pilots since the 1960's or earlier.

As it stands now, the company is not even taking advantage of a loop hole in our sick leave use policy. They are simply applying the policy, as written in the contract, handed to them by 93% of the pilot group who voted "YES!!!"

It's not like management just started acting this way recently. But like an infant playing peek-a-boo, SWAPA and the pilot group seem surprised every time the company pops its head back up doing the same old sort of thing again.

It has been going on at least as long as I have been here - for about two decades. It's pretty comical. We seem to have had the learning lobe of our brains lobotomized when they offered us the kool-aid and Nikes at new hire training.

But it's not funny for the pilots who will be effected by the sick leave use language we agreed to. Now pilots out on an extended sick leave will be sacrificing some or a lot of their vacation accrual, costing them future income and saving the company cash.

And I know we all can't wait to start riding those middle seats on nearly every DH when we go to assigned seating. But that probably won't be all that hilarious either after the fifth or sixth time.

Oh well, there's always 2032.

Zard

I’m getting pretty tired of hearing the execs on Facebook tell us “be patient, this is all part of our strategic super duper secret plan!” Strategy implies a desired end state, unless the strategy is just ‘don’t lose my union job.’ I was patient for four years, voted no on what I thought was a substandard contract in spite of the sell job precisely because of weak language in terms of implementation, vacation weeks, sick leave usage during disability, crew meals, and hotel standards, and deadhead language, and now here we are.

The same people who brought us that weak language won’t even defend what we have in light of the company’s failure to live up to their half of the bargain. They wouldn’t even stop an extra contractual pay rate that stopped meltdown 2.0 this past Christmas. The union was too busy counting its 12 million dollar windfall to defend the contract, I suppose.

Getting called a petulant child on the other forum for asking SWAPA to do what we pay them to do is icing on the cake.

If SWAPAs goal is to have the BOD and execs as the only people who show up to any pickets in the future, then they’re doing an excellent job. I know I won’t waste any more time supporting them in contract negotiations after their behavior the last 8 months. I’ll just bide my time, vote no on the inevitable turd, and check out completely from union or company comms.

The 5/20 club goes both ways, SWAPA.

mulcher

CM is another PJ, no different. SWApull and SWA are synonymous. When SWApull is called out . The group think team bands together and insults the very membership that they stole $12m from. I’m a proud 520 member.

hoover

I had to go look up the insult. Thata pretty bad. When a member asks a rep a question and then he says we're all being petulant children that guy needs to step down. If you don't want to be asked questions then you shouldn't be in that job.

RckyMtHigh

So how do you think negotiations would be going if the 93% hadn't voted yes? SWA and the industry as a whole is in slump, we're overmanned, and have an activist investor looking for cost savings. Any leverage you claim we have would be long gone.

You don't have to wonder, just look at how negotiations are going at FedEx.

The 93% you look down on saved you from yourself. While far from perfect, I'm happy we locked in the gains we did get when we did.

Timmay

Me too. I was a no-vote, and now I'm glad it passed.

Cyio

Agreed 100%. I count ourselves the luckiest pilot group around. If we would have stalled another month I would be willing to bet we wouldn’t have a contract to this day.

While not perfect it’s far better than the last. I do wonder what this petulant child comment is all about. Who said it? The union is there to answer questions so any pushback should be firmly pushed back on.

Lewbronski

You're an example of exactly what I'm talking about. Classic.

Because neither you nor SWAPA understand the RLA, we made massive strategic mistakes that put us in the position we ended up in.

Tell me: how long did SWAPA wait to file for mediation after opening negotiations? Currently, what is the average time in mediation of cases before the NMB and what does that have to do with anything? How did the amount of time SWAPA waited to file for mediation impact our leverage this past cycle?

That one enormous mistake alone was likely irrecoverable. And it's because SWAPA and this pilot group do not, and have never, understood the RLA.

RckyMtHigh

You're not wrong there. Huge mistake to delay so long, but I'm confident we won't let that happen again.

mulcher

Yup! SWApull should have had a better product to sell. They failed.