AirTran MEC Chair message.

[PCL_128]

Ha! Busted. Well done.

 

[Lear70]

Now you are fishing Lear70. Admit you do not know but guessing. It is now time for you to move on and not worry about what other people on here are saying about you. They might be just like me and just getting to you. Grow up, you are not helping yourself start a new life with a new company. All you are doing is bring all your dirty laundry from one to the next. But then again you know that already.

Fishing? Not really. Certain you are one of the two. No one else cares enough to keep stirring the pot like you do except the General, and he stirs everyone's pot, whereas you are only on SWA threads.

Not rocket science.

And I'm not foolish enough to think I will be forgotten, nor do I think it matters. I fought for our pilots. I did so professionally and respectfully. And if that gets held against me then that's someone else's lack of ethics, not mine. I do my job, I do it well, and I go home. Just like thousands of other pilots.

 

[Cometman]

Ha! Busted. Well done.

That is the problem with you and Lear70. You believe everything you read on this site. I am not with either airline. I guess you can call me a trouble maker. However, both of you are so easy. It goes to show you how smart you both really are.

 

[Lear70]

That is the problem with you and Lear70. You believe everything you read on this site. I am not with either airline. I guess you can call me a trouble maker. However, both of you are so easy. It goes to show you how smart you both really are.

Riiiiiiight. lol

I'd say you're pretty much busted. And even if you aren't, then by your own admission, you are only here to stir the pot, which is what you were accusing me of doing and disparaging my character because of it.

So either way, hypocrite, troll, or liar,,, or all three,,, welcome to my ignore list.

Cheers, :beer:

 

[scoreboardII]

I'm still curious comet why you would use the word "we" when discussing SWA purchase of F9?

 

[EngineThunder]

Wow. That's the first time I've heard that. Unbelievable. Golden rule, my ass.

Not true. It was just Peter Griffin look alike Gulstream grads on probation.

 

[Flyer1015]

Do a search, there's pages and pages of the stuff, but long story short, about 48 hours after the MEC voted down SIA 1, Gary Kelly wrote a letter to the pilot group expressing his extreme displeasure that they didn't allow the pilots to have a say and said that, given those events, Southwest would begin to investigate "alternatives to integration", even though Paragraph 6.a of the Process Agreement very specifically said "...utilizing the foregoing procedures, Southwest will implement the combined seniority list and integrate the two companies".

This lead to a lot of heated back-and-forth where it basically came out that Southwest asserted that since they hadn't brought any unionized employees over and that since no planes had come over, that McCaskill-Bond had not been triggered and they were not forced to integrate operations if they chose not to do so. The attorneys said it was doubtful that would hold up, but would take years to fight if they really went that way.

It further came out that with our 717 leases expiring starting in 2017 (just six years from that point) through 2024, and with many of our 737's leased as well, the majority of our pilots might end up on the street while the whole thing worked itself out over many years (it took TWA 10 years to get their court battle heard and we know how many thousands of them have yet to be recalled to AA).

Our pilots were not willing to accept that kind of risk and several of the same pilots of ours who were writing Gary Kelly personally during talks for SIA 1 just begging for a staple, etc, started a drive to remove key union officers who lead the "No" vote push, replace them with their own people, and push for whatever we could get, up to and including a staple. Those people combined with the sudden influx of emails and phone calls saying, basically, "We won't accept this kind of a risk, do something" vastly overwhelmed the several hundred people who had emailed pushing for arbitration before we knew there was this "non-integration" risk.

The MEC, realizing we were about to implode as a union... again... directed the MC to go back out to Dallas and "get whatever they could get", which included a promise to put whatever we came up with out for pilot vote. The NC was then instructed to go out and get everything WE could get. The only thing we were allowed to say No to was a complete staple or probationary periods (and they actually did try to put us all on probation, it was the only thing we got up and walked out of the room for in that 2nd round).

Southwest management then put us under a time constraint, saying they had "400 people working on Plan B - non-integration, and had to report to the Southwest Board at the end of the week, so we have to have a deal on Thursday or we will recommend the non-integration path to the Board and start proceeding".

The Agreement we have now is the outcome of those talks. During the voting period, the Merger Committee on an all-pilot conference call said "If you want to work for Southwest, vote Yes. If you don't, vote No." and that pretty much sealed the deal. Too many people afraid of losing their jobs to fight.

There are a LOT of other details, but that's the long and short of it, and is why some people (gotta love Dicko's avatar) say we had a "gun pointed to our head" in this deal. Take the threat of non-integration out of it, and we'd have gone to arbitration. Maybe we'd have done better, maybe we'd have done worse, but it's over now and it's simply going to take a while for the angst to pass.

In the meantime we'll just keep on doing our jobs, achieving our 94% on-time and top baggage handling spot, and making money for everyone's profit sharing checks. Life goes on...

A threat of non-integration sounds like a pretty classless move from SWA management. I guess it isn't just roses and daisies even at SWA. Did SWAPA have anything to do with the non-integration threat, or was that all just SWA management?

 

[vixin]

"no-probation" language back in.

98% of the AAI guys would have made it through any probation period. Any guess on a couple of the 2% that wouldnt have?

 

[RobZerbe]

No need, there's nothing to discuss.

He's making assertions about a conversation he wasn't present for.

The possibility of the 717 going away was discussed with SWAPA in the room. The conversation was nothing like you relate.

 

[Cometman]

I'm still curious comet why you would use the word "we" when discussing SWA purchase of F9?

Being a professional pilot you should be smarter enough to figure it out without asking. I cannot believe you guys believe everything on this site.