A campaign was started and it culminated in ALPA winning the certification vote. After all, ALPA pilots are better and different than ACPA ones. New elections and P4C incumbents all made up the LECs and MEC. A new MEC and MEC chair was voted in. This was all done by the pilot group. ALPA was the solution to the sub-prime contracts since 2000.
The new MEC chair and Negots committee set off on their quest to seek a world class contract.
US legacy airlines were used as the comparator group, and adding current currency exchange rates, a world class contract meant that wages would rise maybe 80-100%.
Rallies and pub nights and pickets and votes were held. 98% x 98%.
let those number sink in.
Promises continued and no cent was to be left on the table. After all, ALPA was here.
So reality starts to kick in. Updates on negots provided little substantial info. The politicians pontificated about whether labor should be allowed to strike. They said they should, but their presence was certainly there. The federal mediators failed, the 21 day cooling off period didn't result in a WCC. The week before the TA, a subtle changing of wording from the MEC Chair/Negots and people noticed that. The 72 hr notice was almost upon us...and VOILA.... a TA.
VOILA....the trust, unity and good will of the pilot group vanished faster than a rat escaping from an aqueduct.
Within hours of the release of the executive summary the outrage is palpable from the on-line warriors.
THIS WAS NOT A WCC. this was garbage. they sold us out. they were forced to sign the TA. The conspiracy theorists jumped out of the woodwork.
ETC ETC ETC
So what can one surmise from all of this.
The pilot group even when given a blank slate and the best economic opportunity in 20 years f@#!ked this up. Don't blame the MEC, the chair or the Negots committtee. They were in the room, No one else was. They had all the survey data, they signed the NDAs. And they did what they thought best.
It appears that a lot of the vocal (or should I say) heavy typers on the on-line forums suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. They aren't going to negotiate or compromise. They wanted AC to be taken hostage.
If this group had the opportunity to design the ballot it would look like this
Do you support the TA as negotiated?
YES Hell NO Easy NO Hard NO Never I'll quit and go to the US before I support this I've never voted yes since ________.Bottom line is that the MEC Chair and the MEC over-promised and under-delivered.
This was totally foreseeable.
If people thought that they were going to get 80 or 100% raises then they should be visiting a psychiatrist after getting a little Canadian labour education. That was never going to happen.
What will happen now?
Good question! If you vote NO it's because you either think there's a better deal to be had or you want to give a big FU to AC (aka Carnie W).
The Negots committee has told you they have done the best they can. This is a business deal. It's all about the money. I would assume that if the deal fails to pass, the NC, the MEC chair and most of the MEC will resign. Then we will be into months of elections to replace those people, standing up a new Negots team and then new surveys etc etc etc...The strike vote mandate will have expired and the whole fed labour law of conciliation and medication, cooling off period...will start again.
Meanwhile the contract will stay the same. No raises for anyone including the flat pay group. New negotiations don't pay bills.
Then there is the spectre of the Feds getting involved. Wait til you try and stand in front of an arbitrator and tell them what we turned down. If this had gone to arbitration before the TA, I would bet a month of RippleRock's salary that no arbitrator would award a 41.7% contract. How many labour groups have won significant improvements in their CAs after turning down a TA? No Canadian group has ever closed the gap between this TA and what the pilots seem to think they deserve. You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
