MochaSwirl

I bet if you guys did strike, you’d get some changes.
Because after all there’s a pilot shortage right?

Where are they going to get enough to pilots to replace y’all?

They won’t.

Andy

Ask the American pilots how that worked out for them when Clinton was POTUS.
Union members can't even do sick outs anymore without facing negative legal action.

These days, one needs a lawyer in the room when coming up with a plan of action.

Mudge

We pay plenty of ALPA dues to afford that lawyer.

Andy

One of the best responses from a MEC was, IIRC, was AirTran's MEC when they voted to send the LUV merger TA to the rank and file. They stated they were not in favor of the TA but wanted the rank and file to decide.
At that point, it's the rank and file's job to vote this down in overwhelming numbers so the company doesn't try to negotiate another weak contract.

I was prepared for a substandard pay raise in exchange for enhancements in other sections of the contract. But this is a concessionary contract with substandard pay raises.
If this is the junk we're going to get in the future, I'd much rather see contract extensions like in 2016 where it was only section 3. Full contract negotiations are stupid when they yield worse QOL/work rules than the existing contract.

Andy

Looks that way to me.
I'm not a militant person and I always try to look at things from the company's perspective (there's some value in knowing what your opponent thinks; as per Sun Tzu) but this was insulting. And it cost the company a ton of goodwill. This is what overplaying one's hand looks like.

This TA is all about LCAs and PIs. IMHO, LCAs need a pay raise. Not this much of a pay raise, but a bit more than what they're currently being paid. But since there's never been a shortage of people volunteering for PI, I don't think that there needs to be an outsized raise for PIs.

Whiskeyjet1

picketing is fine. You said strike.

MochaSwirl

When last has picketing ever worked in the airlines?

it’s like the adult version of a toddler screaming to their parents and the parents not putting up with their behavior and not paying them any mind .

WHACKMASTER

Uh, it’s worked quite a bit. I know from personal experience. Some airlines are sensitive to negative press (SWA) while others could care less (NK).

Picketing also displays pilot solidarity to management. You don’t think 1398 SWA pilots picketing a couple of days ago at Love Field sent a message to management?

I hope you guys vote this garbage TA down by a whopping majority. THAT will also send a crystal clear message to your management.

Lewbronski

This needs to be addressed because among pilot everywhere, there is an almost complete lack of understanding of how the RLA works and the leverage it offers labor. This causes pilots to refuse to take advantage of the power we have under the RLA.

What happened in 1997 with the American pilots is that they had gone all the way through mediation, were proffered arbitration, turned it down, and were released into a 30-day cooling off period. All of that is simple RLA flowchart stuff.

At the expiration of their 30-day cooling off period at midnight, Feb 15, 1997, the American pilots went on strike. After 24 minutes, President Clinton established a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB). A PEB is a tool offered by the RLA that allows the president to effectively extend the 30-day cooling off period by an additional 60 days.

During the first 30 of those 60 days, the board appointed by the president meets and devises recommendations for settling the dispute. The two sides then have the remaining 30 days to consider the recommendations offered by the board.

Under the RLA, the President cannot permanently order striking workers back to work. He/she only gets 60 days. That’s it. For example, when Clinton established the PEB in 1997, APA President Jim Sovich told the members of APA, “Reach down into your gut because we may have to do this again in 60 days.” The President cannot extend a PEB past 60 days nor create a second, successive PEB. A deputy attorney general under the first President Bush issued a long legal opinion for him detailing how and why the president is limited to only 60 days.

After the establishment of the PEB in 1997, both sides continued to meet and negotiate. It’s safe to bet that, as occurred the next year during the Northwest pilots’ strike, the White House was applying pressure to both side to come to an agreement. 32 days after the establishment of the PEB, on March 19, 1997, APA and American struck a tentative agreement. It was ratified by the pilots at American on May 5, 1997.

Had the pilots of American not come to an agreement with management during the 60-day PEB, they could have gone back on strike. They also could have agreed to continue talks with management but no one, under the RLA, could have prevented them from striking at that point.

But from this episode arose the myth that the President can permanently “shut down” an airline pilot strike. He/she can’t do that - for more than 60 days. Because the pilots of APA came to agreement during the term of the PEB and never went back on strike, many pilots now believe that the president has the power to forever keep us from striking. That’s not true.

Outside of the RLA, it is possible that Congress can intervene after a PEB. However, there’s no guarantee that will happen. In fact, Congress has never intervened following an airline PEB. To intervene, Congress would have to pass special legislation and the president would need to sign it into law. That legislation can do whatever Congress wants it to do. Often, in cases where Congress has intervened in a railroad dispute, Congress has simply extended the cooling off period. What Congress might or might not do is entirely dependent on the political climate at the time, which may pose as much or more risk to management as it would to labor. And, as we all know, Congress is often so gridlocked that it can’t pass even simple legislation. So, Congress can intervene after a PEB, but would it? It’s nowhere near a slam dunk. It’s certainly nothing like a “game over” scenario for labor.

ytumama

Slow clap. Great post.