Last week we highlighted the the sameness of all the date of hire candidates. With the voting deadline fast approaching their resolve to continue their same destructive agendas appears to be strengthening. To this day, we have yet to hear one date of hire candidate articulate how they are going to get us a contract and move us off of bankruptcy era wages and work rules. Instead they fill our email boxes with obnoxiously verbose endorsements lecturing us on the duties of the office they seek and the virtues of date of hire. 

No one we know of is happy that the Nic is the Nic. There is no question that many of us will not see the left seat while those with less years on property will forever bid higher positions. Unfortunately, it's a reality that cannot be changed now or in the future. The day USAPA became our bargaining agent, the Nic became set in stone without possibility of modification. We were all warned of this by our MEC, yet we ignored the sage advice given by the so called evil ALPA lawyers. Instead we threw all of our eggs in the basket of a New York lawyer willing to take millions of our hard earned dollars to wage a legal battle with an ending all too predictable. Meanwhile, we've squandered our kids college tuitions and retirement savings all for nothing. 

Incredulously, not only are we voting for a continuation of the same, but many are voting for candidates hellbent on rehiring the same lawyer who sold us on the impossible over four years ago.

What is the old saying on the definition of insanity?

We realize that accepting the Nic is no easy pill to swallow. In fact it is beyond repugnant for many of us. But what is harder to swallow is the thought that our friends and families will continue to suffer as we work under a miserable contract to the day we are forced to retire. 

The money we're forfeiting, the vacation memories that will never happen, and the decline of our general health can never be recouped. 

If you've already voted for names from the past, it's not to late to make a change. Sit down with your families this evening or make a phone call from the road and discuss your vote with those whom you love the most. They will understand and support you like no one else can. 

Vote your conscience and vote for your family. 

Remember, names such as Hummel, McKee, Bradford, Parrella, Borman, Javurek, Dopp, Day, Smyser, Sevier, Stein, Tobin, Bauhan, Wright, Dunn, and etc...are all the same. They are all synonymous with failure.