Lot of speculation there. UAL has been in joint negotiations for three years. The USAIR pilots never settled on a joint deal and that's 9 years.
The "Reality" is there is no reason to believe that there will be a joint agreement in place by Sept 2015, 2016 or even 2017 unless you are saying we should continue to accept the worst deal in the industry in order to get a joint deal in place like the IAM did with the America West merger 9 years ago, the deal they are still under. Once Section six negotiations are done so is any opportunity to catch up to other carriers because the synergies of joint operations will in no way generate more savings than these super concessionary deals that are in place and TA'd. So the company will be just fine with two separate bottom of the industry contracts, and as you pointed out, with the USAIR deal still in the mix it would keep our hourly rates, let alone everything else, way below the rest of the industry. If you disagree please tell me why you think that AA would be so desperate to get a joint agreement in place? Where is the big gain? Our total compensation is roughly 20% less than non-union Jet Blue and Delta, let alone non-union Fed Ex.
If they vote yes they are approving a deal that gives mechanics at the biggest airline in the country that is making record profits bottom of the industry wages and they really wont have another opportunity at Section Six talks, which carry with them the leverage of self help, for three more years. 2017. In other words if it doesn't bring them up to industry standard its a concessionary deal despite 700 claim that it means a 10% increase, they are still 10% behind everyone else. So at least three more years at the very bottom of the industry. By not coming to a joint agreement till after the Mid Term wage adjustment management locks us in with a much lower than average wage, along with less Vacation, Holidays, Sick, IOD, etc etc etc. So why would they offer anything substantial? Are you kidding me? Do you actually believe they are going to keep their word? look at the videos where Parker is already backing away from the "When we get as big as the other carriers then we can pay like the other carriers" promise. Look at how they have been acting already, taking away Flex vacation, Inspectors off B-checks, screwing non-union out of their sick banks, etc.
Bottom line. By voting YES to a deal that doesn't even come close to UAL and Delta they give even more leverage to the company in Joint negotiations because now management could use that (the mid term wage adjustment) to try and pressure mechanics into accepting an even longer term bottom of the industry deal. Every other work group on the property is already near UAL and Delta so its no big deal. We are the only work group that lags our peers by double digit percentage points in compensation. That's why the mechanics must vote NO and go forward in the process and not settle for anything that doesn't give them parity with UAL or Delta. Most line stations are already short heads, so are most of the MRO's and there aren't many mechanics in the pipeline anymore so we are in a better position now to take on management than ever before.
