I agree about Danny. I have known him for a decade and have swung his gear on many a months. I do not know Ed to save my life. Our paths have never crossed. I do know of his reputation. As a captain of almost a decade here' I can say that there are 2 schools of thought on captainism. One is be a camileon and let FO's just be their quirky selves, or rule with a iron fist. For the most part, I fly by the first method. From what I hear, Ed has chosen the later. But whatever. This has to do with the contract.
I am in an unfamiliar place. I find myself more distrustful of my ALPA leadership than I do of our company leadership. I really don't know all the juicy details about our conflicts between XJT and ASA MEC's. I find it odd that Mank was removed and hushed. I find it odd that there was zero polling of the groups. I find it odd there was zero pressure applied to the company. I find it odd there are rumors of ASA negotiator having an affair with XJT attorney. I find it odd that our ATL status rep added management to the pilot only Facebook TA discussion page, twice. I find it odd that there are rumors that those on the negotiating committee have been promised mainline jobs. I am most unimpressed by the XJT MEC chairman.
I am as sick as the everyone to be done with negotiations. But this whole thing smells fishy. I have to admit, though, that I am hesitant to vote no, based on the fact there is no plan B. And I admit, that if am not a volunteer for this work. That leaves me firmly between a rock and a hard place.
I do feel that the XJT guys need to wake up. Their outliers need to go. Nobody else has them. Yes,I know you had them for a while, but you also worked under the concept of a contract with an amendable date. This industry works under pattern bargaining. You simply can no longer keep your B fund, disability, or line bidding. Be thankful for what you got, and let it go. We probably needed to let go our vacation low. But we should have dumped rigs on Naps first. I am not happy about the association leave at 6 hrs, but we pay that out of dues, not the company. We actually pay 125% to the company, so cutting it is actually a cost to the company.