As a poolie, of course it took a little bit of the wind out of my sails when Age 65 passed. The thing to realize now is that it is now LAW. End of story, no questions asked. These guys who are coming back are doing nothing less than excercising rights offered to them by the law--there is no use in even questioning it--nobody crossed a picket line here and nobody lost their job as a result. Everyone of these Age 60+ guys/gals that came back had their own unique reason for doing so and it's not up to us to question their motives for exercising their rights. The argument that they should be working at a place like NetJets isn't a valid one in my mind--why should they "take the spot" of another qualified pilot who's first choice is NetJets and has no desire to work for SWA?
Benhuntn--Thanks for pointing out that these are the same people who protected the younger pilots from furlough in the past. These are also the same dues-paying SWAPA pilots who held up in a time when all other airlines were cutting pay and got an industry leading contract. Sure, I wish that none of them had decided to come back, but the fact that they are is just a small blip on the radar when you take into consideration the time span of an entire career,and I hope that everyone of us in the pool gives them the respect they deserve when and if we ever meet one of them. I hope that those of you who currently work at SWA don't think of those of us in the pool as ungreatful whiners--if anything, we're just extra eager to join the family and are nervous that one more factor may be thrown into the equation to delay that further. I guarantee you that if classes were running 50 a month, you'd see barely a mention of the issue on this thread.
