FNG,
You've just shown you true colors. This is about getting back at the company.
Question...
Do you honestly feel that raising the pay of everyone just because the new hire pay was raised, was the true intent of this language?
Honest answer, now. Don't answer just based on what the wording appears to say.
Naturally the answer is no.
This was not the intent of the company, nor was it your understanding at the time you signed the agreement.
The company owes you nothing, and in arbitration will be ruled accordingly.
I don't know how the company interprets 3A but I ABSOLUTELY view the intent of 3A as protection from the following scenario:
Being sold during your interview on a set of assumptions about pay and benefits then finding (after you've invested several years of service) that they would rather invest elsewhere.
We TOLD them those 190 rates were too low to begin with but it was just too much of a temptation for Jetblue to say, "we need to let the airplane prove itself" and then spend the next three years "fixing" those pay rates while they neglected the rest of us - which I firmly believe was their intention all along.
I feel absolutely justified in pursuing recovery in this case because Jetblue said one thing and did another. It appears that my contract has protection from what I viewed as a con job the day those 190s were announced.
We fixed 190 pay. Now lets go back and fix the gap they thought they could pocket for more bonuses, Park Avenue apartments, and stupid toys.
We may not be able to get back the health insurance they promised but we can sure as hell try to back a little of the "prosperity" they talked about in those hyped up interviews.
My interpretation (and I'm one half of the contract equation) is that 3A was meant to protect me from pay stagnation. What if Jetblue decided one day that it didn't want so many 12+ year pilots around anymore and some newer, cheaper blood was in order? Hey, let's freeze the pay at the top of the scale and do what we need to, to get people in the door......which is essentially what happened.
My interpretation is LLBLs interpretation and it is perfectly reasonable.
Greed my ass. You bunch of smurfs. Go have a BoB party.