VA flt deck didn't get their deal overnight! For those of us who can remember that far back, they fought for a number of years to get where they are today and slowly slowly, it got better and then finally 6 months or so after 9/11 believe it or not!, when the company was still reeling from the effects of that tragedy, they got to where they wanted to be. Now they are paid in line with other carriers INCLUDING BA flight deck. Yes they fly more hours, but they get better money for doing so.
It didn't happen during one set of negotiations, they climbed a small step at a time for 2 or 3 years and then went for the big one! This is the first time we have even had decent pay negotiations with enough crew to give the union any strength and because we ARE strong enough now to make ourselves heard, I think the 'authority' went to everybody's heads and we decided to "teach the company a lesson" so to speak, vote yes to STRIKE!!
We did quite well by getting the 2% deal thrown out and the 2nd deal of losing a crew member and our air share. We should have taken the 3rd offer of 3.4% but even I didn't see it like that at the time, we were all far too concerned with getting more and more and more. We didn't have good representation from the union or our reps and nobody told us to take it slowly and we'd get there!! Had we accepted this deal, at the end of next year we would already have started negs for the next rise. And remember, when all this is over, our flt deck are going to start THEIR negs for their next rise, do you think they'll stand for Branson saying, if you don't like it go elsewhere?