Timbo

Not only are RA, Ed and the rest of the boys at the top NOT going to grant ANY concessions to themselves, they are also increasing the dividend by 50%! Remember, THEY own hundreds of thousands of shares of Delta Stock, so in effect, they just gave themselves a 50% raise!

But we can't even hope for 2004 pay rates, that would just be 'unreasonable', right?

And while were on that subject, just exactly WHERE did the Billions Delta is making now, come from?

In LOA's 46 and 51 combined, the Delta (south) pilots gave the company roughly $1.3 Billion per year in concessions, many of which are still in effect today (pay rate cuts and PBS manning efficiencies to name just two)

And the Delta Pilot DB plan was underfunded by a little over $4Billlion when the company flushed it.

So add those two events (pay cuts and DB funding) for the past 11 years and what do you get?

HUGE Profits!

So what are they going to do with all of OUR money?

Pat yourselves on the back boys, that's YOUR money they took 11 years ago, and continue to take every two weeks. Now they are going to use it to buy back $6 Billion in stock and pay themselves a 50% increase in dividends!

buzzpat

Scoop speaks for me as well. Precisely what I'm looking for.

redship

The red part above is not my view at all and I have 30+ years to go. If we negotiate pay rate increases and concessions every 3 years I will retire with a PWA that has good pay rates and only a few additional pages to support all the other sections. I would vote yes for no pay rate increases if it meant my W2 went up (not from advancement to other planes, upgrade to CA or flying more days) a good chunk every year. I want the "soft" money so my 30+ years at Delta is enjoyable for my family and doesn't kill me in the process. More of what you said in your first paragraph, please.

flyallnite

I think that's a big reason for the company wanting to wrap up a new contract quickly. The future is looking bright and the sky will be the limit for executive and shareholder compensation. The longer it takes, the more embarrassingly rich the company gets. Any concessions will only get redistributed on mahogany row.

gloopy

TVM may make sense within reason, while there is no need for concessions, especially big foundational concessions on scope, sick leave, work rules and "productivity".



Huzzah!

Timbo

The very reason there are concessions this time, is found in C2012 and at the subsequent Investor's Conference. They are going to ask RA about 'Cost Control' going forward. RA wants to once again be able to tell them he has just signed another Cost Neutral contract.

He'll be saying the exact same things he said after C2012, Capacity Restraint (parking 747's) , Fleet Up Gage (more 76 seat RJ's), Changes to Profit Sharing to cover raises, etc.

gloopy

That's all I'm saying. I'd happily agree to a reasonable TVM without concessions th at still contained significnt gains at all levels including pay. Everyone wants pay, from the 64.5 year old to the hair on fire 25 year old future number one for 10 years new hire. I want as much pay as we can get, for everyone, and tangibile gains throughout the contract in pretty much all sections. But a quicker raise in exchange for even one of the rumored concessions is an absolute no deal from me. I'd take the NMB over some of these rumors any day, even if it means waiting for a raise.

BTW, you mentioned a very high W2 on the 717, and I can only guess that's the result of a lot of green. Cool, good for you. But what if we got a quick "raise" but the company was allowed to spread existing monthly reserves over the weekends and holidays effectively decimating green slip awards? What if the effect of that was a 50K or more pay cut for you, even though it involved a nice on paper TVM raise? Most pilots aren't green all month anyway, and the majority probably never gets more than one or two a year if that. I bet you wouldn't like that would you? There is no need for concessions in this environment. None. Its better work through the NMB for years than to eat big concessions now, especially scope work rules and sick time and PS reductions.

gloopy

Pleasing the day trader stock flipping analcycts isn't our concern. The worst thing they can do is temporarily attempt to tank the price of our stock, in which case our huge buybacks will disproportionately reward real investors in the long run anyway because there's some serious investment grade stuff going on right now.

Those same analcyst morons will also be wanting us to yield to the LCC capacity barfers and the dual subsidized ME3. Tough. Not our concern to try and please them. Let them have a hissy fit. If they do, we will shore up our stock even more in the long term.

They still teach long term in B-school, don't they? Who cares though, its not our concern. NO CONCESSIONS THIS TIME!

Sink r8

Cool. We're back to discussing philosophical viewpoints, and arguing about what people want the TA to look like, not the latest politically motivated rumor/leak. Seems like APC rights itself from all sorts of weird excesses.

Timbo

Thinking about the rumored lost LCA trips for F/O's, I'm wondering if the company has figured out a way to stop Rolling Thunder too. Seems with all the upcoming hiring/training, reserve utilization is going to be an issue, I can't believe they haven't figured out a way to stop it already...but I have no doubt they are looking at it. I just hope we don't see that in a last minute T/A too!

(and no, I'm not trying to start that rumor, the Rolling Thunder thought just occurred to me after reading Gloopy's post above about manning.)