USA320 and A320 Driver have provided good thumbnails of the meeting today.
I may be bald and probably not affected by most of this past the 3 year mark, but here are my observations (and a little color) on the meeting:
Probably the best union meeting I have ever attended. Despite what you have heard about Hummel, he ran a great meeting. Unlike the supposed CLT town hall the day before, where most of the time was taken with the Reps giving their opinions and suppositions, this one was really member oriented.
To their credit, the CLT reps ran quickly through their special agenda, eliminating most of it then parking the meeting until later, so the MOU presentation could go forward. Ingram even announced he was going to vote for member ratification, saying he had listened to his pilots.
The NAC was allowed to give their brief without questions, and then the BPR was allowed to go around the table with comments and questions. Having just seen the MOU, I think throughout the day the BPR asked reasonable and thoughtful questions.
And now the really different part. Hummel turned over the meeting to the members, and they were allowed to ask questions to the NAC and Lawyers for over an hour, followed by even a longer session after lunch (provided.) It seemed every question from the gallery was polite, some emotional, but no yelling or calling out anyone. Hummel turned the questioning back over the BPR, and ended the day telling the crowd there were two cases of beer iced down in the break room and to help themselves. I did not stay, but "wow." My kind of union hall!
Meeting to start again in the AM, and I would guess they will send it out for a vote tomorrow.
Notes:
A lot of pilots were confused by a slide that showed "retirement" as not being obtained in the MOU. Actually, this referred to the 120M the Company was going to have to pay to the debt leger to buy AMR, because of their pension shortfall. Our guys asked for 90M (based on our size) and were able to come out with a 40M dollar lump sum paid on the POR to us (about 10K apiece) When asked if it was a bribe, everyone laughed (BPR, Officers, NAC, lawyers, etc.) "of course." Throughout the day a few pilots and Reps took offence to that in comparison to our givebacks. But I think all would like the payment, and will not decide how to vote based on that small amount. The NAC was not even asked to do that, so good for them
Roland Wilder is very soft spoken (our Pro Negotiator,) and VERY experienced. But his words were clear. We need to take the deal now, with no delay. General Counsel and Merger Counsel were much easier to hear, but had the exact same message. Remember, two of our lawyers were hired by Cleary (good job Mike) and Roland was promoted by CLT (good job CLT!)
Legal stressed that it would be VERY bad for the BPR not to send this out for a vote, but (and this sounds strange) maybe powerful if the members turn it down. But overall they favor approval of the MOU.
The MOU dies if we don't merge with AMR in BK. We are only giving up our Change of Control and Code Share if the POR brings us together in BK. All our protections were just a bargaining chip, the lawyers made it clear if we were able to win COC, it would go to arbitration and drag out. If we become APA's #### without the protections, our COC will only last a few months. It is only worth what you can get out of it, and worth zero if this merger does not happen.
Crimi and Borman bought up good points about "stagnation." It is a possibility, but attrition over the next 7 years would negate the entire East group (about 2700 pilots) so why merge if you are going to shrink that much? And everyone is furlough protected anyway, unless airplanes fly into buildings (they still need to work on the force majeure language. That will happen in the joint agreement with APA.)
I hope they send it out tomorrow. We are not in BK. The Credit Card guys are not threatening. We actually are a reasonably successful (though maybe short lived) airline. So for once our guys can read, learn, and make a hopefully educated decision based on the facts. Every man for himself, rightfully so!
Good luck to us all
Greeter
