It’s a known thing that a company will avail its self of a gentle response from unions by stringing them along with a “genuine” desire to negotiate. Months or even years later, nothing has been achieved.....these are called delaying tactics. By the time this “genuine” desire to negotiate has been dragged out for a sufficiently long period, the pilots are well and truly suffering negotiation fatigue and the unions are starting to look at the cost of maintaining the fight.....they both fold.
When a union knows this is going to be the case but still allows the company to run them around till they tire, it suggests one of a few possibilities: 1. The union is incompetent, 2. They trust the company in question, 3) They have been offered an inducement.
VIPA speaking this way concerns me, and I doubt the AFAP are any different.