No news
Moose,
I wish I had something new and exciting to tell you.
The LAX roadshow is today - and is the last one. We have had a good turn out in ANC and SEA. The presentation from ALPA showed us that A.) the industry is in the tank right now and everyone who provides more than a cattle prod and a bag of nuts is hurting. B.) We are not hurting nearly as bad as the rest of the full service majors. C.) Something has to change to get us back to profitability.
Not exactly rocket science or news that we didn't already know...
It looks as if the membership is willing to let ALPA start negotiations with the company in the near future. If we do nothing right now we go into openers next spring which will more than likely lead to binding arbitration in the spring of 05. If we talk to them now, it is a free chance to accomplish something with us being more in control (no arbitrator). Of course this all depends on the company and if they are really willing to accomplish something now rather than later under binding arbitration.
The "vision 2010" in my opinion is a joke. Kind of like UAL's "blue skys" of the 80's. All pie in the sky, no reality. I will never vote for the "vision" as it stands now, it has us giving up way to much stuff (permanent B-scale with new hires getting no pension, big changes to our health care, big pay cuts, work rules like banked vacation, trips touching training and vacation - the list goes on...)
They shoot for the outer rim, and hope they can hit a low earth orbit. If they are willing to negotiate now, I can see us giving them some cash back (maybe 10% ?) and some minor work rules in exchange for a contract extention. Who knows...
As far as your DOS goes - now is certainly not a good time to get out if you want to jump right into Alaska. Flying a C-17 and knowing you have a paycheck coming each month is worth its weight in gold right now. Keep in mind, we have big retirment numbers starting to come up in 06, 07, 08 time frame.
Good luck to you.
AK737FO
