Originally Posted by
motytrah
The problem with these arguments is they ignore the fact that the FAs were working under a court imposed contract that was written by management. It was part of the NW bankruptcy package and the first time in US history that a bankruptcy court has ever set wages. So, while I understand DL has no legal obligation, they also were very aware of the context under which those wages were imposed.
But the question is whether that context has changed. The contract may have been imposed by the court, but the underlying economics behind that contract remain, and will only get worse. I'm not really anti-union, but you also can't get blood from a stone, and if the unions genuinely have the long-term interests of their members at heart, then they should really be trying to work with management to ensure that their contracts are reasonable, given the current economic environment, and flexible enough to adapt to changing situations.
To date, I have seen little evidence that the former NW employees are willing to do what it takes to secure their long-term future. They think they are doing that by unionizing, but if they don't help ensure the long-term future of the company, then that contract won't be worth the paper it was printed on. Given what happened when they helped force NW into bankruptcy, you would think that they should have learned their lesson. Let's see if they did.