SkiFishFly
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2005
- Posts
- 779
If the Mediator says yes, then we (Management and the pilots) are released into a 30 day cooling off period. You can still negotiate during this, but I doubt the company would do much.
At the end of the 30 days, management is free to impose its last offer which, currently, is T.A. 2. Nothing else that I'm aware of has actually be put on the table as an "offered contract".
However, if Management takes the position that the concessionary package the NPA BoD rightfully voted down is their last offer, and the NMB agrees, then the company can impose the concessionary offer.
The pilots, during that cooling off period, would have to take a strike vote IF they wanted to engage in self-help at the end of the 30-day cooling off period, and would be free to strike when management imposes the last contract offer. The NPA BoD would have to approve a strike vote and the strike vote would have to pass by a majority.
The furloughed pilots would be able to vote on it, and I think we know how many would probably vote YES to a strike. Add that to everyone else who is hopping mad right now, and you might have a successful strike vote.
I don't know the status of SPC preparedness at the moment, or how the last Wilson Polling data went in regards to strike vote authorization. We also don't know IF that is the company's plan this week OR if the mediator is in the frame of mind to allow it. All we know is the company formally requested a one-day meeting which, arguably, only has one interpretation right now.
Methinks the company is betting on the poor performance the past two quarters and the furloughs to scare people, along with the discord in the union and believes there will be a lack of ability to lead a successful strike. I think they're wrong, just as they were on T.A.'s 1 and 2, and I also believe that, with oil down and revenue up, that the rest of the year will be better, and that management wants to do this before things turn for positive financially, but the company seems to have their own ideas about reality.
I feel like the "proposal" the company is going to have at the upcoming meeting will be our current contract cut to pieces with lots of concessions. If the union looks at it and says "no way" and then the company asks to be released and the NMB says OK - does that mean the company can impose what they threw on the table at the last meeting? That hardly seems appropriate.