SWA / Frontier Deal Off For Now!

[instructordude]

I thnk FAPA may be credited with making one of the worst business decisions in AVIATION HISTORY.

Disagree. They will force arbitration and get seat protection and relative seniority to their respective seat. It is Federal Law Mohawk Allegeny. These guys know what they are doing.

 

[flint4xx]

Dear intructordude, were you kicked in the head as a child?

 

[instructordude]

Dear intructordude, were you kicked in the head as a child?

Laugh all you want but even an imbicible like me can see where this one is going. Congrats to the Frontier guys for playing intelligent hardball.

 

[Quiet Flight]

From the SWAPA Communications Committee. Posted this morning at 0718 Central.

M&A Communications 08/13/09

SWAPA and FAPA begin negotiations


SWAPA Pilots,

It’s been a whirlwind week for your M&A committee. Yesterday afternoon we traveled back to Dallas for an urgent meeting with FAPA.

Weeks ago, the company approached SWAPA for ideas on how to complete the F9 transaction with our pilots’ support. We expressed our concerns about legislation and the resulting effect on pilot seniority at Southwest. The company came up with the “labor contingency clause” requiring labor agreements in place prior to the closing of the Frontier acquisition.

In recent days, after the binding offer was made, company bankruptcy lawyers expressed fears that our bid would be removed from consideration or not considered valid as long as it contained this essential labor clause. These fears came both from the judge’s feelings and the F9 creditor’s committee.

Tuesday night, after talks with the company, they expressed that if they were going to go through with their bid process, they would have to either remove the labor contingency clause or revoke their offer entirely by midnight Wednesday, as the auction for F9 opens Thursday.

Your M&A committee firmly took the stance that any bid from Southwest that excluded the labor contingency clause had the potential for extreme harm to our pilot group. The company said that if FAPA would support the labor contingency clause, the bankers, lawyers and creditors would then consider the bid a valid one.

To that end, we made contact with FAPA yesterday morning to let them know that the company had grave concerns about the validity of their bid and would withdraw from the auction if we did not have a deal by midnight. The M&A committee was in DC this past week, meeting with our lawyers. This left the committee with only hours to fly to Dallas, meet with FAPA via conference call, and negotiate a resolution to our SLI.

We felt that, considering the time constraints, the only way to adequately protect our entire pilot group was to place the FAPA pilots below the SWAPA pilots on our new Master Seniority List.

FAPA’s concerns are:

• Job Protection
• Seat Protection
• Pay Protection
• Domicile Protection

We are still in the middle of negotiations and the situation is very fluid. FAPA’s position was a relative seniority position with a “Variable” for the ratio.

Your M&A committee made it very clear that honoring all of those goals would be a windfall for FAPA pilots.

Understanding the need for a quick resolution prior to midnight, the company offered to pay protect FAPA pilots at SWAPA F/O payrates (or higher FAPA non-concessionary book rates) from the date of closing until all FAPA pilots transition to the SWAPA master list. Their pay would remain (even after transitioning to the SWAPA list) at the greater of their pay protected amount or their seat equivalent pay as spelled out in the SWAPA CBA.

At 10pm, we were still on opposite sides of the table. Southwest then offered to petition the court for an extension this morning with no assurances on the outcome.


Your M&A Committee

 

[BoilerUP]

Something doesn't quite smell right about a company only giving their pilot group 24 hours to secure a mutually-agreeable pilot integration that, supposedly, can make or break the offer.

 

[travrussell]

Here is the deal offered last night, directly from SWAPA,

a staple with;
"....the company offered to pay protect FAPA pilots at SWAPA F/O payrates (or higher FAPA non-concessionary book rates) from the date of closing until all FAPA pilots transition to the SWAPA master list. Their pay would remain (even after transitioning to the SWAPA list) at the greater of their pay protected amount or their seat equivalent pay as spelled out in the SWAPA CBA."

F9 guys, you need to get organized, a few guys in power are trying to cash in and are screwing the majority of you in the process, get involved take action, call your union. This was a great deal, I'm shocked they said no. SWA did the right thing, they took care of their current people and pay protected the new guys. Good luck!

 

[shootr]

The company did not create the deadline. The judge did. He gave SWA until midnight to get rid of the labor agreement clause in their binding bid. SWA then told FAPA/SWAPA "fix it by midnight or the deal is off". After negotiating last night...no deal - SWA asked the judge for an extension for labor to come to an agreement. Still waiting for his answer.

Relative seniority? I've tried to be respectful...but are you frikkin' kidding me? FO's, your CA's are gonna tube this for you.

 

[FlyinPiker]

Why should they get more time?

If Southwest really wanted this they should have put things in play a lot sooner.

Instead they elected to wait until the very last second to submit a bid.

By doing this they are basically trying to force this down everyone's throat. They knew there would be complex details to work out.

Game over.

 

[shootr]

Something else to think about. SWA did not offer to pay protect you because it's the right thing to do. SWA wants to operate F9 seperately and slowly shut it down. SWAPA WANTS you guys here and got SWA to give this extra money up for you! Do you think SWA want to pay 1st year SWA FO's F9 pre-chapter 11 CA rates? SWAPA is your friend in this deal but we are not your fairy grandmother. I still don't believe RAH will beat out SWA. I do think staple with pay protection is the best deal you'll get and it gets much worse from there. We're not better or more deserving in life than you but our management is ruthless and they will stop at nothing to get what they want. Take the bird in hand, for Pete's sake.

shootr

 

[flint4xx]

Laugh all you want but even an imbicible like me can see where this one is going. Congrats to the Frontier guys for playing intelligent hardball.

You crack me up...