Emotional is when pilots fixate on the past internal union dispute rather than on what the company wants to do going forward. If your vote feels good because you hope it hurts the other pilot group (regardless of how bad it also hurts you) then you are emotional.
The fact is the MOU hurts all of us. It is full of concessions, even though we are not in bankruptcy.
--The furlough protection last less than two years.
-- He can reduce the fleet by 15% per year for narrow body and 20% for wide body
-- he can code share on any carrier that code shares with AA
-- he has no limit to the E-190s he can add
Our concessions pay for the APA pensions.... It goes on and on. We are not in bankruptcy. Why should we agree to more concessions?
DUI promises there will be over a billion dollars of profit gained by synergies, he better not be relying on more concessions from us to get to that number!
I posted this same post in the other "MOU" thread. I'm not sure which thread will end up "living" so I posted it in both places....
This MOU is not full of concessions - rather full of protections. It is what the name says, a memorandum of understanding between the company and the union that explains how the pilots of US Airways will be protected in the event of a merger with AA. It clarifies and addresses the concerns of the USAPA negotiating committee and puts it into a legally binding document.
About your points:
1. Furlough protection - what you said is just plain incorrect. In section 10, it clearly states that furlough protection will last for the entire duration of the new contract, which is 6 years.
2. Reducing fleet by 15 or 20% - what you wrote is actually distorting and taking out of context the meaning of that section. What that section is actually referring to is protections for US Airways pilots, not concessions, as your point sounds like. It is explaining that, during the time of seperate operations from when a merger is announced and full integration of the seniority lists and flight operations, one side (AA or US Airways) cannot grow (or shrink) at a different rate than the other side. This section further makes sure that one side cannot grow widebody fleets while the other side only grows narrowbodies - everything has to grow more or less equally. And, again, this section only applies limitedly. It ends when seniority fences come down or 18 months after getting a single operating certificate, whichever comes earlier.
3. Code sharing - Why shouldn't management be able to code share on AA? We would be the same airline after a merger, right? And, why shouldn't we maintain the current code sharing that AA already does? Nothing in this MOU says that any more code sharing will occur than already is occuring.
4. No limit to E-190s - Why would there be a limit to E190s? E190s are mainline aircraft flown by mainline pilots. Just as 320s are mainline aircraft flown by mainline pilots. It would be like telling the company you cannot add any 320s, 737s, etc to the fleet, but only 330s or 777s from now on. Any extra 190s that we may get would be growth aircraft, anyway. The fear that the entire new merged American Airlines would become 1 giant E190-only airline is just rediculous. And in this MOU, it even eases the worry that US Airways would become this giant E-190 only operation, while AA pilots would be flying all of the higher paying widebodies - by stating that extra E190 aircraft would be required to be distributed fairly to both sides.
Other points:
1. The Change of Control clause - what seems like a concession is not really a concession, in my opinion. The higher snapback wages that this change of control clause refers to will never happen in a million years, thus it can't be a concession if there is nothing really to lose. The company is just asking for the elimination of this worthless clause in the current contract, just so it will be easier to merge the airlines with more flexibility (and even maybe cheaper). But, it really is just a nuisance clause, as far as the company is concerned. Because the company can easily get around this jsut as they did during the AWA merger. (Because obviously AWA took control of the new merged airline, their management, their HQ, etc, but on paper it shows the old US Airways bought AWA to go around the COC clause, which would happen in this case as well). In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with giving the company more freedom to merge the airlines in the easiest and cheapest way possible. This will make for a stronger new merged airline, which will benefit all employees.
One more thing - if a merger does not go through with AA, the COC clause stays in tact anyway.
2. Loss of LPP's - this is meaningless, because McCaskill-Bond seniority integration supercedes (and incorporates LPP's) in a much better, fairer way.
3. Loss of min hulls/utilization - what appears to be a concession is not to me. These current protections protect the staffing (thus, jobs) of the pilots. These protections are simply being replaced with different kind of protections to protect jobs and staffing. These consist of furlough protections and pay-protections for displacements. The pay-protections will pay protect any pilot who gets displaced. 330 to 320, 767 to 737, or 320 to 190, etc. The company would not include these protections in the MOU and the AA Term sheet if they plan to shrink the airline. Besides, the min hulls/utilization that US Airways currently have would not work after a combined operational integration with AA anyway (there would be no more original US Airways or original AWA to have these min hulls). The min hulls/utilization protections that are currently in place are only designed so that 1 side (AWA or US Airways) could not shrink away while the other grows. These min hulls would not be included in a Joint contract anyway.
OK I'm almost done.
What this MOU does give to US Airways pilots is assuredness that US Airways pilots will be paid the same high rates offered to AA pilots on Day 1 of the meger. It assures equal representation of USAPA negotiators at all Joint contract negotiations. It gives US Airways pilots a nominal signing bonus. (This is small, I know, but without this MOU it would be zero.) It gives US Airways pilots furlough protection, displacement pay-protection, and other protections. It ammends the original AA term sheet to say a pay parity review with DL and UA will be at year 3 instead of year 6. It clarifies that a pilot can keep sick bank time in excess of 1000 hrs, if they have it currently. (The AA term sheet, of which the new merged contract will be based on has a sick bank limit of 1000 hrs) And there are other protections, too.
If this MOU does not get approved then all of these protections are gone, and eventually these so-called concessions will have occured anyway, because they will all be removed in the new American Airlines contract anyway. A contract, that will be negotiated solely by APA, then imposed on us when the merged US Airways-AA have been declared a single carrier by the NMB. In the meantime (months,years?) US Airways pilots will be paid their current ultra-low wages and maybe get furloughed.
In conclusion, I feel it is imperative to vote yes on this MOU. In my opinion, this MOU is good for all US Airways pilots, West, East, and "Third-Listers." This is not like a TA where you can vote no, and then go back to negotiating. If this does not pass, then the MOU and its protections would simply go away, with the merger still going through, with US Airways pilots looking from the outside and getting paid their current ultra-low wages for the foreseeable future.
Thank you for your time reading this!
:beer:
