1) You didn't hit a nerve. I just tire of schmucks displaying total ignorance of how we got to where we are today. None of you had the expansion cycle we've had. This contract is a huge jump from the previous one, which was well inline with our position as a company at the time, and even to the fringe of growth anyone could have predicted.
2) Comair, ASA, nor XJT would have the contract they had without being in a position with outstanding barganing leverage. Yes, we all remember how CVG was shut down. The ramifications are still being felt as mother DL spun off ASA, after they were unable to find a buyer for CMR. Furthermore, DL is taking great pleasure in systematically dismantling CMR by adding contract carriers and reassigning your flying to other 50 seat carriers.
3) Unless everyone is as dumb as you two, we all know it takes 2.5-3 years under the RLA for a T/A to come about. I'd with hold the idiotic comments until then. Even if we hold the line on an outstanding scope, no JA, and improvements in other articles that are inline with our company and industry position, you'll still bitch. I don't care, but be informed. If you had a crystal ball, you'd have known DL was going to fist you, but you don't and neither does our MEC. One can only negotiate based off reasonable assumptions. Why base a contract on hopes and promises? Everyone would laugh at that. If we had 757 rates at $250/hr, and all else was subpar on equipment we operate today, it'd be idiotic. We based our pay off what we knew at the time and where the industry was. None of you, until XJET recently, voted in a big contract improvement. We were the first post-9/11 non-concessionary contract. Print it and read it everytime you post. We may not have moved the "industry bar" (which is a joke, because your company's health is important. If you don't believe that, I can't help), but when we improved our previous contract rates by 10% initially, and 17% over the life, as well as have an industry leading scope, I don't know what more you can ask from an airline that was roughly the size of TransStates today.