All this back and forth about how long it's exactly been is pointless, it's just been too long with America West managers treating AWA employees like shXt.
It is my opinion that overall the responsibility for failure of the pilots coming to an agreement lies within management. And this has not been done by management without a purpose.
As for the flight attendants, the poor F/As have been without a contract now for approximately 10 years. Only recently (and most likely due to ulterior reasons related to AA) did the company managers push forward with finalizing negotiations of a contract. They figured that the west F/As were so desperate that they'll just take anything. While more west F/As did vote yes for the contract, the majority of them have been with that abusive west contract for so long that it just wasn't worth cutting away with the few good things that they did have in the contract for what little pay increase was being offered in the new one.
I am glad the majority of the west F/As voted down this insult of a contract proposal, which was only a way to once again undermine the F/A group, while AWA execs were planning to settle for much more expensive agreements with the work groups of AA. It's just shameless. They offer better to AA employees to bait them into an agreement, than they would ever offer to the current US/HP workforce. This whole "with AA we'll be able to afford it better" is just a lie, just like when they lied about having to lay off people from the west in 2007 and not the east, because supposedly they were having larger than expected attrition from the east. That lie I exposed myself in a subsequent townhall meeting.
And as for AA; say that something were to go through and US were to put through agreements with you. It would only be a matter of months before AWA managers and executives started to violate that agreement. I'll tell you that this is the case because that is what they did with the 2005 Transition Agreement currently in place which clearly states that they can not replace a west flight with (east equipment and crew) and vice-versa. Just in 2005 and 2006, AWA management several times violated this clause resulting in grievances being placed by the unions. In the end, the company somehow settled the matter without incurring any damages (financial or otherwise) and with a mere promise of "we wont do it again."
Yes, that's what the company got away with and that's what the unions were able to get out of all the hassle. Then in 2008, they did it again. This time they found out some smart manipulative way of maneuvering themselves around the rules. An east flight that was cancelled here; a west flight was then cancelled as well; that flight was then rerouted as a ferry and then they just slowly trickled down the passengers of that originally east flight to that ferry flight. Indeed astute.
From talking to the AA work groups, what I have been hearing is that "well. we'll be so big and so strong that they wont get away with this & that anymore" or "we have better unions than them." Ohhh yeah? The east unions currently at US Airways are just as strong as AA's unions. But at the most, as in the case of what's currently been happening for so long at AA, they only get to bring stuff to a stalemate, which is completely OK with AWA's executives.
You'll one day realize that you've landed yourself in total stagnation and with US (AWA) management just reaping the benefits of it.
On top of that, think of all the things that they'll do away with - product wise. Just like AWA gutted all the good things away from itself and US Airways as part of its goal to transform to a ghetto like airline, they'll do it over at AA. Granted that AA is also known for having initiated some of the more insulting product cuts in the industry, just know that the AWA group has a tendency to duplicate that same idea - just exponentially. As I've said before, if any carrier dared to lead the way in something that is bad for customer and employees, AWA management with top that with their own tweaked version of it. While they'll never be a leader in anything good, they'll certainly copy anyone's bad idea and make it even worse. (See entertainment, powerports, and ovens on aircraft.)
That's what I think of US' offer to AA.