ExAF said:
Too much cutting and pasting for me. As I said in my post, I was in the AF during the 98 strike and am not up on all of the facts for that period.
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Yet that did not prevent you from rendering an opinion and attempting to equate that with the current situation despite a lack of facts.
The vast majority of the NWA mechanics were more than willing to honor the ALPA picket line in 1998, although, in retrospect, the course of action chosen by the IAM and the ALPA MEC to keep the financial pressure on was the right one. Still, I never heard any mechanics question the pilots decision to strike, even when we had to absorb two weeks without pay. All to have you imply that the current ALPA decision to cross the AMFA picket line is the same.
As I said before, in the present situation, the offer of a united front was there. If the price was too high for AMFA, don't blame ALPA.
ALPA set the conditions, not AMFA.
AMFA decided to go their own way.
AMFA chose the only path left to them other than total capitulation, and it's a decision I, for one, will never regret.
The pilots were buying time and trying to prevent bankruptcy.
Noble. But naive, at best. Bankruptcy became inevitable when it became a way for corporations to avoid their pension obligations, obligations NWA has intentionally underfunded even when times were good. Attempting to prevent that is a great slogan but won't change the reality of the economic incentive to file.
You think they liked giving 15% with the understanding that the company would be back for more? They were facing the harsh reality of the economic situation the company was in. They realized concessions were a reality.
As did every employee at NWA, including AMFA members. I think the employees of NWA have proven in the past that they are willing to go to great lengths to keep the airline alive. However, the company was far less willing to negotiate with the rest of us this time, particularly after they had an agreement with the pilots. At that point, negotiations became demands and no longer negotiable.
The whole idea was for a united front to try to limit those concessions, not prevent them completely. It was going to be painful either way.
Indeed. Yet that didn't keep ALPA from striking a deal with NWA even as they spoke to the others about the need for a united front.
Your side of the story is ALPA decided to drop the cooperation and make their own deal.
My "side of the story", as you put it, is based on the fact that while still in discussions with the other unions, ALPA reached a 'separate peace' with NWA. Those facts, as well as the efforts by the ALPA MEC chair to influence the other unions negotiations, are easily verified.
Our sid of the story is AMFA wasn't really interested in cooperating and decided to go their own way.
Given the conditions placed upon that cooperation, they were not. It might be also be helpful in the future is ALPA were to keep in mind that people other than pilots may also have had an affiliation with a college or university a little deeper than attending sporting events and be just a little less condescending in such situations.
The truth is probably somewhere in between. The union leadership on both sides thought they were right. Both thought their approaches were the best for their membership. There was a fundamental difference of opinion.
Indeed.
ALPA was not out to sink or abandon AMFA and they still aren't. Don't blame them for the situation we are all in now. They are not the enemy.
I do not blame them, although many do. ALPA acted as I expected ALPA to act; without reference to anyone else and with certainty that their way was the only way. However, in the end, ALPA did something AMFA has never done: crossed a legal picket line to go to work.
I have no blame for you, but I have no absolution either.