I've been coming to this forum less and less as the vitriol becomes more and more venomous between the SWA usual suspects and their Airtran counterparts.
While the 7th grade level of insults hurled by some of the SWA guys are unfortunate and inexcusable, I'm finding that many of the more vocal AAI posters are becoming increasingly detached from perspective and history. This is a problem, because I can see you becoming more and more angry, more and more militant, and more and more likely to be an negative force at your new company.
I understand the angst AAI guys have. I get it. It's justified. Your cheese has been moved and your near term future rearranged. (Remember, the same exact thing can be said for SWA FOs and junior captains).
But try to step back and gain a bit of history and perspective. I offer this photo to facilitate the exercise. I present it not to scream about how you guys had a 98% strike vote (at the time, I personally admired your resolve against a demonstrably antagonistic management), but to (hopefully) make a couple of perspective building points.
Take a look:http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/tools/shared/mediahub/00/88/20/slideshow_1208804_airtran.JPG
It's from August 2009. While it is a good illustration of where you guys were just a year before the SWA deal, I draw a more interesting conclusion.
That handsome Airtran FO is holding a sign reading "Airtran pilots paid up to 26% less than peers."
What I find interesting is, on your old contract, you were actually paid as much as 50% less than your seat position and longevity counterparts at SWA. Yet the guy designing a sign intended to give the max rhetorical bang for the buck for a media event decided that SWA apparently wasn't a "peer", and therefore should be excluded. Which is odd because saying "up to 50% less than our peers" would make for much better copy on the AJC.
Now fast forward a couple of years. You now have, or will soon have, those pay rates that you didn't even consider to be in your league during picketing. While upgrade may be delayed for FOs, you receive a pay increase comparable to an upgrade. While many of you guys think you got a bad deal on the SLI, you seem to forget SWA is a much older group (the increasingly angrier PCL-128 will retire as the #1 or 2 on the list--not too bad for a GIA alum!). While you guys are justifiably upset now with management, you have a chance (if you take it!) of a future in which conflict with the company is very mild and the need to design picketing signs is in the past. And while job security is never absolute, SWA is a much more seaworthy vessel in which to ride out the turbulent ocean of the airline industry.
While the present and near future will have some serious wound licking (believe me--there are wounds on BOTH sides that need attention), look to later in the decade and beyond. How likely do you think your career at Airtran would have ended as a top-paid wide body captain? How likely do you think that is now that you're on the SWA list?
So I ask all of us, SWA and AAI--try to be positive. Try to be optimistic. Because both positivity and optimism are justified if you don't succumb to the cancer being spread by on this forum and elsewhere. Also, negativity and pessimism are rarely productive world views. And let's not disregard old Abe Lincoln's advice: a house divided against itself cannot stand.
While the 7th grade level of insults hurled by some of the SWA guys are unfortunate and inexcusable, I'm finding that many of the more vocal AAI posters are becoming increasingly detached from perspective and history. This is a problem, because I can see you becoming more and more angry, more and more militant, and more and more likely to be an negative force at your new company.
I understand the angst AAI guys have. I get it. It's justified. Your cheese has been moved and your near term future rearranged. (Remember, the same exact thing can be said for SWA FOs and junior captains).
But try to step back and gain a bit of history and perspective. I offer this photo to facilitate the exercise. I present it not to scream about how you guys had a 98% strike vote (at the time, I personally admired your resolve against a demonstrably antagonistic management), but to (hopefully) make a couple of perspective building points.
Take a look:http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/tools/shared/mediahub/00/88/20/slideshow_1208804_airtran.JPG
It's from August 2009. While it is a good illustration of where you guys were just a year before the SWA deal, I draw a more interesting conclusion.
That handsome Airtran FO is holding a sign reading "Airtran pilots paid up to 26% less than peers."
What I find interesting is, on your old contract, you were actually paid as much as 50% less than your seat position and longevity counterparts at SWA. Yet the guy designing a sign intended to give the max rhetorical bang for the buck for a media event decided that SWA apparently wasn't a "peer", and therefore should be excluded. Which is odd because saying "up to 50% less than our peers" would make for much better copy on the AJC.
Now fast forward a couple of years. You now have, or will soon have, those pay rates that you didn't even consider to be in your league during picketing. While upgrade may be delayed for FOs, you receive a pay increase comparable to an upgrade. While many of you guys think you got a bad deal on the SLI, you seem to forget SWA is a much older group (the increasingly angrier PCL-128 will retire as the #1 or 2 on the list--not too bad for a GIA alum!). While you guys are justifiably upset now with management, you have a chance (if you take it!) of a future in which conflict with the company is very mild and the need to design picketing signs is in the past. And while job security is never absolute, SWA is a much more seaworthy vessel in which to ride out the turbulent ocean of the airline industry.
While the present and near future will have some serious wound licking (believe me--there are wounds on BOTH sides that need attention), look to later in the decade and beyond. How likely do you think your career at Airtran would have ended as a top-paid wide body captain? How likely do you think that is now that you're on the SWA list?
So I ask all of us, SWA and AAI--try to be positive. Try to be optimistic. Because both positivity and optimism are justified if you don't succumb to the cancer being spread by on this forum and elsewhere. Also, negativity and pessimism are rarely productive world views. And let's not disregard old Abe Lincoln's advice: a house divided against itself cannot stand.