A rant it was I'll give you that. What you and every West pilot should take away from it however, is the author is a senior wide body Captain yet 5 1/2 years down this road is giving it to ya with barrels over the award.
It's a shame the fundraisers at AOL coined the phrase ' angry FO ' and even more that the West pilot group bought hook, line and sinker into the fantasy of sending them your money and toeing the party line till the East Captains rose up in rebellion so you could cash in. Honestly, the AOL updates with the ending pleas for cash remind me of a disgraced televagelist.
You won't be getting the Nic and with this merger all the more risk IS yours.
I do not think you understand the West or AOL's strategy.
We are not waiting for the east captains to rise up. The strategy is very simple. Might does not make right, we hold the high ground, there is absolutely no reason to give concessions to so that our careers can be further decimated by the east.
Further, there is no West strategic committee, or meeting of the minds to plan our strategy. There are always competing courses of action and the path is determined by default of who gets/got financed to defend our position.
Look at this board today. You have Lynyrd saying we need to go ahead and let usapa get a ratified contract so we can sue, then you have the competing camp (of which I belong) that says no...that is a very bad idea, particularly with a pending merger. So, who's plan moves forward for the West...the one that gets financed. As of now that is twofold. We have AOL representing the West class in the company DJ, and we have retained a separate law firm to represent West interest in case of a merger, and the accompanying SLI.
Bottom line...east captains can do whatever they see fit to do...but, guys like Woody and Dan Davis, and I suspect a very big majority of east pilots being fed the BS from usapa and eating it up with a giant spoon, have little to no clue about the position they hold, what the court rulings actually mean, or the penalty that awaits.
One more thing...you say we won't be getting the NIc. Very self assured statement,,,you do know that the Nic is the only accepted system seniority list at LCC at this time??...that usapa has absolutely no other valid system seniority list to offer in the event of a merger,,and the company is still on the hook for collusion if they stray from the Nic and renegotiate a change to our CBA that says Nic is our combined seniority list.
So, who is waiting for the east captains to "rise up"? It ain't the West, we know who voted in usapa. I think it is the hard liners on the east that fear an uprising of east captains who have endured an extra 5 years of BS pay and work rules. After all, you know how much you are costing them more than the West does, you live it everyday.
