Wacopilot,
If and when the MEC ever gets an offer they think we might accept you will get the opportunity to vote on it. They have said repeatedly that they would never ratify any changes to our contract without a full vote by the pilots.
Let's assume that all 770 of the pilots you suggested would vote against a DOH merger, you still are in the minority by almost 2:1. I'm a very junior Captain and I usually fly with very junior FO's. So far, not one of them has voiced sentiments similar to yours. My SWAG is that there are maybe, MAYBE, a couple of dozen junior FO's fretting a DOH merger. The ones I talk to are all looking past the immediate future to the long term protection afforded by real brand scope.
DOH mergers are few and far between as it is. In most merger scenarios one group is in a significantly better position to demand some type of ratio. CMR and ASA aren't in that position. We are about as equal as any two pilot groups could be. We are the same size, we fly the same equipment, we fly to the same airports, we have the same ownership, our compensation is very similar, etc, etc. The only real difference is that we have hired 200 more pilots than they have recently. With a DOH merger you would still be senior to everybody that was hired after you. How that is unfair is beyond me. It certainly is more fair than if you were the last ASA pilot hired a year ago being placed junior to some CMR pilot hired a month ago.
I'll tell you what is not going to happen. We will never give up pay or anything else just to get more airplanes. That, my friend, is simply not even on the horizen. If you are looking for that to create enough growth for you to upgrade you might as well wake up now. That dream is never going to happen. The best opportunity for growth is to get a merger and scope out the non WO carriers.
Let me be very frank with you and this is not meant as a personal insult. I have some serious concerns about the loyalty of any pilot shortsighted and selfish enough to not consider a DOH merger with ASA a fair proposal even if it meant a minor setback for them personally. Minor being the key word. If they aren't willing to accept some minor compromise to gain what is clearly better long term potential how would they fare during a prolonged strike, 89 days for instance. I noticed that the numbers you cited coincindentally breakdown just about where the pre and post strike seniority begins. As one of those that paid a fairly steep price for the contract we have I ask that you reconsider your position and think on a bit larger scale. This isn't about you or I individually. It's about what is best in the long term for all of us.
When our strike was settled I was one of 86 that weren't immediately invited back to work. We were furloughed despite initial assurances to the contrary. I was infuriated. I felt like I got screwed royally. I vented on this board and the ALPA board. I personally voiced my displeasure to our MEC and anybody else that would listen. I was wrong. I let my own selfish immediate needs take precedence over the greater good and that included my own greater good. I just couldn't see it at the time. What really happened was that a reasonable compromise took place that gave me long term employment security in exchange for a relatively short term furlough. Further more, the pilot group expended negotiating capital to secure my future. They had to give up stuff to get the 86 pilots back to work. Again, I was too pigheaded and selfmotivated to recognize it then. Along comes 9/11 and over the next year or so the bottom falls out of the industry. Suddenly my job security is looking pretty darn good and I'm feeling very grateful that my reps and fellow pilots made decisions that I initially didn't agree with.
I don't know about other pilot groups but I do know a little bit about this one. The senior pilots and the leadership will not negotiate or vote for anything that isn't in the best interests of all of us. That may mean that some of us MAY incur what we perceive as an injustice. My experience is to the contrary. What they did was in my best interests. I just didn't know it at the time.
Do not follow blindly. Ask tough questions. Vote your conscience. All I ask is that you try to look a bit further down the road and think on a more collective scale.
