GL,
There is no cookbook to a "perfect" merger/acquisition. Each one is different, each scenario has more differences than similarities to past mergers/acquisitions. Using DL/NWA as the poster child is of no more value than using the RAH/F9 one.
That being said, SWAPA is taking the approach it is taking because its members (within the legal limits of BM and AM) have directed it to. If DL hadn't pursued what its members wanted, you and others would've have denounced them as not being representative of your own pilots.
As far as arrogance, it is an anonymous board, knowing who works for whom is difficult if not impossible at best. Attributing posts as representative of a pilot group would be like saying all DL are like you? They aren't are they?
A search of the forum would find probably a 1 v 1 post that could make the same argument for AAI pilots but I know from my own experience the AAI pilots I have met have all been very similar to the pilots I fly with at SWA...top notch folks.
SWAPA has been communicating with the AT MEC unlike your statement. I can understand your confusion and misunderstanding since you are not employed by either airline and don't have access to all of the information.
The
issue has been SWAPA hasn't agreed to the positions that the AT MEC has put forward....that doesn't mean they aren't communicating! If it does, then my wife and I haven't been communicating on many topics, nor my kids since we come to different conclusions many times.
Two good teams made up of honorable pilot who disagree....nothing sinister or "bad" about that. That doesn't necessarily mean someone is or should be "mad".
SWA is a part of that equation in the opinion of AT but if SWA doesn't wish to engage that isn't SWAPA's fault.
If at the end of the day the AT MEC finds it as a showstopper and doesn't wish to complete a Process Agreement because of it, then the AT MEC should get direction from their membership and let the chips fall where they may (kind of like arbitration). I'm fine with that and so should be the AAI pilots I would think.
As far as the website, it is an instrument to share information in as clear and concise manner as possible.
AAI has the opportunity to do the same and if they feel it is of value to their members and to the public, then that is great.
I'm all for transparency and I applaud SWAPA for putting the information out there. It may not excite some who read it; some obviously disagree with it but everyone is certainly better informed after reviewing the material.
Like anything however, there are many sides to the story and the bias is always there, it is only one side of the story. Readers certainly should evaluate multiple sources of information with the full understanding that those sources won't be without biases also.
Arbitration maybe the final result and if so, no worries from my standpoint or from many within AAI I suspect. It is not a sign of failure but one step in the process as I see it.
We'll all live with it and prosper as a result of either a negotiated settlement, mediated settlement or arbitrated settlement.
As far as a culture is concern, I'm confident the vast majority of new and old SWA pilots will see that it continues...that doesn't mean the result will not make for a few malcontents and those will populate and feed those on here and other places who hope for our failure....so nothing will have changed will it except there will be an airline with 7300 pilots focused on being the best airline possible. That bodes will for our future I contend. Cheers,
