Our strike vote ( Seattle reservations ) is today, so I got up extra early to go vote NO.

I don't know what the union hopes to accomplish, the company is in bankruptcy, you can't get blood from a turnip.

In 2003, the company asked reservations/airport customer service for a 12% paycut. The Union went to court to fight it. The pilots had taken 29%, the mechanics about 15%, and the Union said we shouldn't have to give anything because we had just ( in 2002 )gotten our raises after ESOP.

The union came in late 1998/early 1999, and they did not get the contract negotiated until 2002. If we hadn't been union, we would have been on the old schedule and had raises in 2000, 2001, 2002.

Anyway, the judge laughed them out of court, said since we were 3 months behind the other work groups in giving back, our cut would be 14%. And it wasn't just 14% for 3-6 months to make up for what we hadn't given, it was permanent.

I've put in some suggestions for negotiating, but they won't even consider them. Plus, they raised our dues in Jan, without a vote by us.

As you can tell, I'm not happy with the Union.

I would rather have my job and give up the pension. Yes, a lot of people have worked 35 years and counted on the pension, but if the company goes under, so do our paychecks and our health insurance. You can't get COBRA if there is no company.

Guess I had better get off my soapbox now.