Beaver Driver, just to clarify things 40 months was never in the mix. Polar was 5 years then down to 3 years finally agreed on Capt. Praters 21 months.
I understand the Atlas MEC is hung on the 12 months and wont move to the 21 which would get the merger under way.
Simply not true TG. The following statement is directly from the table:
'' After several hours of discussions, it remained apparent that Polar decided that they could not move forward unless we agree to a “follow the work” provision that as previously stated was rejected by Arbitrator Harris. Even though we had previously offered a 12 month allowance (to follow the merger process) for the “follow the work” provision, in an attempt to keep the process moving forward, Polar demanded 40 months, and only after a great deal of mediation by ALPA and Captain Prater. We rejected these terms and adjourned but agreed to continue to work towards resolution.
Today, after seeking further counsel from our Merger attorney, we have finally determined that we cannot agree to any “follow the work” provision and have also withdrawn our original offer of 12 months. To that end, we believe that if we were to agree to such a “follow the work” provision we would be in direct conflict with the Harris Arbitration ruling and such an agreement would not be in the best interest of our Crew Member’s or ALPA."
As you can see, Atlas gave in to Polar's wishes for up to 12 months to cover the period of the merger. Once they realized that this was only a roadblock to the merger process. They withdrew even that offer.
Polar doesn't really care about the follow the work. These are all old time 121 guys and they know this drill well. What they are doing is to put roadblocks in the way of the merger in hopes that
something will happen to prevent it. We call this throwing s___t against the wall in hopes that something will stick.
This might all be semantics - 40 months is a little over three years. So if you are hearing things in "Green-Turtle-Cay" language the three years makes sense.
But Prater never did get them to 21 months.