The standard response is that the company will not negotiate with anyone other than the AOA pilots.
Of course they don't want us to have professional representatives, but who put them in charge of how we conduct our negotiations? Too bad: CC until they negotiate with whoever we hire to negotiate on our behalf, since pilots are busy flying airplanes. Just as Swire hires full-time people to do it on their behalf, with titles like DFO, GMA, etc., under what authority do they determine who our representatives are?
Or how about CC until they send in the only negotiators that we consider accept acceptable, such as the DFO's butcher, GMA's kids' teacher, ICM manager's doctor, etc.....???