Opinion......Occasionally the stars align and Compass Correction's opinions and mine coincide. I will echo their condemnation of this MOU. But why the cheap shot at Mike Cleary and Paul DiOrio that they said could not get a contract? Well boys, your boy Hummel got us a contract. How do you like it?
Here is my problem. We elected a management pilot that was hell bent on a deal with the company under any circumstances. He advertised this when he ran for election letting management know that when he was elected, the candy store would be open.
Then he fired the Chairman of the NAC Paul DiOrio just before going into these negotiations. What better signal to the company than to get rid of the guy that was standing firm on what the pilots said they wanted in a new contract and one that would sound the alarm.
So, is it any surprise that we got our heads handed to us? All we did was negotiate against ourselves. Is it a surprise that the company once again tells us that we are paying for this merger?
Not only did we lose our pensions, but we are told that we will pay for the protection of the American pilot's pensions. There is loss of scope and protections, loss of the Change of Control provision and so much ambiguity in the MOU language that the NAC had to call Kirby during the BPR meeting to ask him for clarification on some items. I just bet he clarified it all right. All this for $10,000 that after taxes will be reduced to about $6,500. We sell ourselves cheap.
So far, other than Hummel, the attorneys who will just move on to the next client and Chip Munn and his jolly band of misfits. Everyone else sees this for what it is -- a concessionary contract!
Right now, there is a lack of information and a distrust of the information we are receiving since it seems to be contradictory. That is what happens when a Hummel and the NAC meet secretly to negotiate. They should have been given directions from the BPR, had the BPR in constant contact with the NAC during negotiations and we would now have a pilot group that can trust the outcome and a BPR in support of the proposal. What we got was a fait accompli from Hummel and the NAC and total chaos! I have been told that we got all we asked for. WHO ASKED FOR IT? Not you and me! Not the BPR!
Nothing has changed here. The company studies the pilot group. Figures out the least amount of money they can pay us in spite of the industry averages. We are impatient with how long it takes to get a new contract (we behave as the company expects us to) so we elect a union leader they can manipulate. Than they throw that amount of money on the table and tells us to 'split it any way you want, but that's all you will get from us.' Then they watch as management pilots and the pilots that only have a short time left try to sell it to the ones that will have to live with it for years. Then to add another element, they say we have to decide quickly or else. I've seen this movie before and I know how it ends. It ends with panic and later recriminations.
We have been rejecting this tactic for years. Yes, some will argue that we never got a contract. It was a strategy designed by the company so we would eventually take anything offered. The company refused to move forward and than pitted the east against the west to keep us all off balance. It was a great strategy for the company and has kept us all in bankruptcy wages long after it was necessary.
But times and circumstances changed with the announcement that US Airways was trying to merge with American. We should have used this opportunity to flex our muscles. Instead we folded and we changed tactics when we changed leadership. We may have to change leadership again to regain some of the strengths we should have in this time of change.
We built this company, not Parker and Kirby. We keep it running, not Parker and Kirby. Many of us will still be here many years from now. Probably not Parker and Kirby. The millions that will be made will be made, not by us but by Parker and Kirby. Keep that in mind.
We have been negotiating for years with the same amount of money being offered that was originally offered to us in spite of a changing industry, changing fortunes and cost of living increases. Yes, they now offer us a vague promise that we will be paid more for our services. But in that promise is a cloud and a lot of unanswered questions that the protections we had would have prevented any slight of hand by management. They wanted scope, not because they just threw that in there, but so they can strip this airline of its planes and reassemble it as a much smaller airline with 190's for the smaller cities we will serve. History is a lesson we need to keep looking at. The promise of $170 an hour will not apply to the 190's. The protections of the larger airplanes will disappear like a puff of smoke. If those protections are somehow in there, we need clarification and a guarantee.
As for Change of Control, if they want this deal, cough up more money. There are Billions of dollars involved. The American pilots get their pensions. We get $6500 take home bonuses? Who is kidding who?
As Wolfe once said. "You will only get what you can negotiate." Did we really negotiate or were we told "That's it, take it or leave it? I don't know but I suspect we bungled this negotiation from the start when we advertised our intent from the outset.
Well, our leader got us into this. It may take new leadership to get us out.
