LAfrequentflyer

NWA aims to end scope clause restrictions on large RJs in new pilot contract
Friday October 14, 2005
Northwest Airlines wants permission from its pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., to create a new feeder carrier separate from the mainline that will operate aircraft seating up to 100 passengers in the Northwest Airlink program with "no numerical or use restrictions."The scope clause in the existing pilot contract sets a maximum size limit of 69 seats and a numerical limit of 54 RJs with 50-69 seats.

The information is contained in the company's Section 1113(c) proposal filed on Wednesday (ATWOnline, Oct. 13) and provided to ALPA. If NWA is unable to reach agreement consensually, it will ask the bankruptcy court to impose the changes. It is seeking $358 million in new savings from its pilots in addition to $250 million they contributed last year. Reductions in hourly pay account for 62% of the new savings goal.

The proposed airline--dubbed "Newco" in the filing--would be the exclusive operator of Airlink aircraft seating between 77 and 100 passengers. Pilots would be represented by ALPA but would not be on the NWA pilot seniority list and would be paid at "Regional airline industry average pilot labor costs." Their contract would include a no-strike/no-lockout clause, with wage disagreements subject to "binding expedited interest arbitration" and the arbitrator required "to apply a Regional airline industry average pilot labor cost standard."

NWA also wants authority to codeshare with feeder airlines operating aircraft seating up to 76 passengers with no numerical or use restrictions. It wants "no restrictions on domestic codesharing agreements with other domestic airlines," and the right to wet-lease up to 10% of scheduled block hours of international passenger flying.

Also in the contract, top pay for a 747-400 captain would fall from $232.18 per hour to $178.91, which, according to NWA, is the same scale used by United Airlines for its 777 captains. At the other end, a DC-9 first officer's top pay would drop from $110.51 to $61.11. The weighted average decrease is 28.4%.

by Perry Flint

FlyerJosh

Ouch! 232-178 isn't so bad in the whole scheme of things (still making six figures +), but an almost 50% paycut from six figures to ~60K hurts!

Then again, I have yet to even come close to reaching the six figure mark...

BoynamedSue

...........

FlyerJosh

No I haven't ever flown the heavy iron for an international carrier... the biggest thing that I've commanded is the CRJ, and that was enough airline experience for me.

I'm not saying that the paycut sucks (across all ends of the spectrum), I'm just saying that the junior guys are the ones that are going to feel the hurt more than the old farts flying heavy iron. If you do the math, the senior captain loses ~24% pay with a cut from $232.18-178.31. The junior Diesel-9 FO gets handed a ~45% paycut.

That's bull**** IMHO. I never did understand the whole airline attitude of bigger equipment, bigger paycheck. You're telling me that somehow the CA of a 747 has more responsibility that that of a A319? That's crap as far as I am concerned regardless of the size of the plane, each person has individual lives and millions of dollars of equipment in their care. In addition, should something unthinkable occur, the liability from either plane crashing is in the untold millions of dollars.

It's time to fix the payscales. Pay should be based on length of service, and should have some relative standard. I know, a perfect world... but then again, if they can do it at some successful companies, they should be able to do it industry wide.

All I can say is that I certainly enjoy flying outside of the union vs management airline environment.