Looks like the Westies won't back down

[Flyer1015]

Maybe their CEO will walk in with a list and threaten them with non-intergration if they vote it down.

Yes, which is ultimately a threat to avoid arbitration and McCaskill-Bond. How did SWA pull it off?

 

[scoreboardII]

how the hell did this turn into a bash SWA thread again? Oh, thats right, its FI.

 

[Tripower455]

Yes, which is ultimately a threat to avoid arbitration and McCaskill-Bond. How did SWA pull it off?

By getting both pilot groups to vote for the SLI by 84% or so.

 

[SWA Bubba]

Yes, which is ultimately a threat to avoid arbitration and McCaskill-Bond. How did SWA pull it off?

If this is a serious question, then I'll try to give you an answer as I understand it. SWA management "pulled it off" because they were more concerned with their lasting culture than they were about the synergies of merging the companies, and thought that their input would best affect the outcome they wanted. To the best of my knowledge, all other airline mergers/acquisitions/etc have occurred where management cared more about the results of the merger than they did about their current or new employees, and really didn't give a crap about who got screwed, who felt that they got screwed, or even whose rectum was still bleeding years later. In other words, in previous cases, they wouldn't risk the merger by taking sides or putting forth a solution that THEY thought was "fair." SWA management did. The SLI/Integration deal agreed to by both SWAPA and Airtran ALPA is essentially what amounted to what SWA management thought was a "fair deal."

SWA, having bough Airtran outright, was perfectly in their rights (from a legal standpoint) to not integrate, or to sell off assets, ro run seprately (within current CBA terms), or whatever else they wanted, with the "acquired property." M-B only applies if they merge the companies. If they choose not to, then M-B doesn't mean squat. (i.e. it doesn't apply).In the non-union world, this kind of crap happens all the time. In our industry, however, not so much. So far, no other airline has ever bought another airline and then even hinted that they would consider not merging the acquired company if it wasn't on the terms they thought was fair. They just bought/merged/whatever, and then just let the employees fend for themselves. Right or wrong, apparently SWA management didn't want to do that.

On the other hand, a bankruptcy merger (American/USAir) probably doesn't fall into the same category. I suspect that actually merging the airlines is a requirement of approbval and exiting bankruptcy. They can't change their mind later. Nor would Doug Parker do so anyway. He wants to be in charge of the world's biggest airline; he's already shown that he doesn't give a crap about any employee whatsoever.

Anyway, that's my view of what happened, and how SWA management "pulled it off."

Bubba

 

[waveflyer]

Isn't this thread about AA and usair?

Do you swa/at guys not get the irony in hijacking a westie thread to repeat your years old irrelevant opinion?