It's been interesting to watch this exchange for 48 hours to see where everyone is at... What I see from just observing for a couple days? Exactly what I've said the last few months on our internal board:
Southwest pilots consider themselves superior. They consider AAI pilots inferior. Even though THE REST OF THE WORLD sees two similar airlines flying similar equipment in a similar market structure.
When you take away the arguments back and forth, the mud-slinging, the attempt to manage expectations, the threats, the intimidation,,, that's what you're left with. One group that considers another "not in its caliber". Even though the flying we do in the EXACT SAME AIRCRAFT (or one that's even more advanced and automated with a seating capacity the same as one of the smaller 737's) is actually the same or more involved than what SWA does on a daily basis. I find it somewhat amusing, actually, in a sad sort of way. Reminds me a lot of USAirways prior to Nicolau...
As for the two other arguments, Squirrel is correct on the interpretation of the Process Agreement. Further, I bring you this gem, which so many like to ignore and NO ONE has an answer for, as it was signed by ALL 4 parties, including SWAPA and SWA management:
Section VI
(a) Utilizing the foregoing procedures, the Parties WILL implement an orderly combination of the Southwest pilots and the AirTran pilots under a single collective bargaining agreement and representation by a single collective bargaining representative within a single transportation system under the RLA.
There is no getting out of integration. All 4 parties, including SWAPA and SWA management agreed to integrate. No matter whether it comes via a negotiated to mediated settlement or arbitration.
HOW SOON that happens, is another matter. Here is an excerpt from our Merger Committee update last night:
In short, the results of binding arbitration are largely unpredictable. In addition, one can’t ignore recent “binding” ISL arbitrations, which are being challenged in court by one party or another, such as the US Airways/America West case and more recent Frontier/Republic award. Taken together, it simply means that both the results and implementation schedule of an arbitrated ISL can be less than certain.
The only thing SWAPA can do is delay integration by following the USAPA / F9 road and challenging the ruling in court for years to come, all while Southwest continues to take our deliveries, growth, and expansion, and we sit out here on roughly the same size network as we already have. You can't shrink us into oblivion, but it can get dragged out for YEARS and we would never get that money back.
That's the threat. That enough people at SWAPA would reneg on their own agreement to adhere to binding arbitration and keep us tied up in court battles for a decade or more, losing around $60k a year per pilot in the process.
Of course, SWA management loses about $200 Million a year by that happening (they'd have to maintain COMPLETELY separate ops to run two separate companies), which is why it's no surprise they want a negotiated settlement as soon as possible. If they DID integrate corporate operations, like NWA / DAL have, whereby the F/A's are still running separately (no mixed F/A crews) while other work groups ARE combined, you'd have the foregone conclusion that the company WAS going to integrate the pilots (partial workgroup integration triggers M/B), it would just be a matter of time until they figured out HOW or until the courts forced it.
Just a little dose of reality... have a great Father's Day weekend out there.
