ASA managment ready to continue...

[ohplease!]

my mouth, no doubt. They're already watchin' me. I just feel it.

 

[JustaNumber]

Companies exist to maximize earnings and minimize cost, not to make their employees feel happy and secure. The only reason they will ever give you anything is if they feel like your unhappiness as a labor group is costing them something. By continuing to save them money, operate efficiently, minimize waste, etc, you are allowing them to drag their feet indefinitely.

I agree with everything you said, except for the last sentence. Yes, our contract will only improve when management understands that our unhappiness is costing them something, but ASA management has CLEARLY shown that they believe poor pilot morale and motivation is cheaper than a new contract. No amount of two-engine taxiing or other inefficiencies has or will ever influence their asinine uneducated thought processes. Only a course in Employee Productivity 101 might ever change their thinking.

The only leverage we have with this management is the threat of a strike. I believe that even they understand that their own jobs would be in jeopardy if there were no pilots to fly the airplanes. That is why they occasionally negotiate in good faith, just enough to keep the mediator from calling BS. So unfortunately, our fate is in the hands of the mediator (and Mr. Atkin), not anything else that we have control over.