SuperFLUF, I'm not sure you have read this before, but this was posted on Calforums. Very good reading and has already changed two captains mind's that I flew with last week and this week. I'm not telling you to change your mind, but I think you will reconsider your vote after reading this.
Fear Is The Great Manipulator
It is a primal instinct, a lower brain function that served as an early warning system against danger. It is a base emotion, which bypasses the higher brain functions of reason and rational thought. This is what makes it so effective when trying to manipulate generally better-educated individuals who may be resistant to your cause or arguments. Whether it may be fear of furloughs. Fear of more severe cut later if we don’t capitulate now or just fear of the unknown.
It has been said that the best way to deal with your fears is to face them down in the cold harsh light of day. So let’s look at the menu of fear, which the company has prepared and our union leadership has eagerly served up for us.
First, they say ”there is no better deal waiting after this one”. If you have the temerity to turn this down then you will regret it. Ok, not very subtle but it hits you in the gut and shakes your confidence. Really though it’s just a highly aggressive way of saying “I really don’t want to negotiate”. Not that “I won’t negotiate”. After all what businessperson would ever make you a first and only offer without a fall back position? That strategy in it’s self would be bad business. They are gambling based on your past behavior that your mindset is such that you feel small and insignificant and have far more to lose then they do. CAL just invested a fortune in capital improvements in both IAH and EWR. Furthermore they were just awarded Beijing, which some analysts believe is worth a hundred million a year in revenue. They have a lucrative deal with the Nigerian government for partial cost protected service to Lagos. Does this sound like a company that will just fold up its tent and go home over a few minor details in how it gets it’s $213 million dollars from the pilots?
Second “We will go into cash conservation mode”. Well pardon me but isn’t that what we’ve been doing for some time now? Or has there been some great orgy of lavish spending going on since 9/11? The only specific details they have proffered here are canceling the B787 orders and the B757-300 leases. Well we are only one of a few airlines that operate the B757-300’s and I wonder exactly just what other demand Boeing has for those leases. We’ve gone a long way for Boeing by making them our sole supplier. It wouldn’t do very much for their image or business if we shriveled up and went away. Furthermore if as the company claims the last frontier for revenue expansion is international flying then what sense would it make not to take delivery of the very tools which we need to capture this largess?
Third, the dreaded” furloughs”. I don’t recall any specific threats to furlough pilots. This hand grenade was thrown out more for effect then fact. As I’ve said before. We don’t even have enough pilots to crew our current winter/spring schedule let alone the busy summer season or planned future expansion. Let’s then pile on all of the upcoming retirements as well. The numbers just don’t add up and neither does the threat. The only business plan, which would support furloughs, would be the one to shut the doors permanently.
Fourth, “Our hired experts verify the company is in dire financial condition”. I don’t believe that there are many of us here who would challenge this finding. That being said does this preclude us from working together with the company in good faith to find a more equitable way to provide the needed relief? The pain in this agreement seems to be haphazardly strewn about without any nod towards leveling it’s effects while still providing the needed amount of relief.. While not enthusiastic we are highly motivated participants. I question the good faith of my negotiation “partner” who opens discussions by dictating in advance exactly how much I will be giving up. Offering a deal where the concessions are voluminous, concrete and permanent while the up sides are few, highly conditional and totally beyond my ability to control.
Fifth, Why after three years of stagnation when all the while our NC was on full time flight pay loss, we are suddenly told we only have a small time frame in which to meet the companies demands or suffer the consequences of our failure to act. Some say it was the sudden raise in oil futures others the ruinous actions of our competitors. Is it possible that our highly compensated and much touted management lurches from one crisis to another without any forethought what so ever? Isn’t this exactly the type of challenge for which these highly educated and experienced stars of the business world are born? Please tell me that in the end it doesn’t fall to the overworked and underpaid working stiff to make it all work out.
At the EWR road show our attorney offered up a dramatic monologue. One steeped in fire and brimstone in which he admonished us to not walk in the footsteps of our USAir brethren by failing to heed his advice to accept the companies first offer. It was a very moving delivery although I found myself feeling like it was a closing argument being delivered to a jury by the prosecutor. Hey, wait a minute isn’t this guy my lawyer? Why do I feel like the defendant here? He also said that while he’d rather go into BK court with the letters of protection that they were no guarantee they would be honored. In other words all show and no guaranteed go. We’re paying a pretty big price for so thin a promise.
How does this “all now my way or nothing” gambit benefit our management? Simply put they have everything to gain if it succeeds and little to lose if it fails. If the TA passes it will be a coup of historic proportion by permanently rolling back our pay and benefits in a way that would have made Lorenzo green with jealousy. If the TA fails they still have the option dealing with us in a manner allowing them to capture the same savings without having to totally humiliate us in the process.
This is not just a 45-month contract. We are laying the foundation upon which any succeeding agreement shall be built. For the older guys it’s their sunset contract from which they will have to struggle forth into retirement. For the younger guys it means having to spend their next two to three agreements to recover what those who went before them had already won decades before. Remember fear is an emotion and as some on the other side of this issue are fond of saying. Make your decision rationally without emotion.
