Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheManager
Winner. Especially the reference to the recent CVG road show and the RH dog and pony act of spreading FUD. Fear a furlough of 1500 pilots if you ask for SWA pay/W2.
Direct quote from the DALPA Comm Chair:
"I thought the explanation you received at the CVG road show yesterday was pretty complete. SWA pilots make a large W2 because they have a pay rate that is multiplied by a lot of hours. It was also explained that were we to eliminate the ALV and other constraints to obtain that kind of productivity here, we could probably kiss the bottom 1000-1500 guys goodbye."
Direct quote from RH:
"So what I said at the road show is that you should be careful what you wish for. If you want to generate higher W-2's by flying more hours, then you will run out of block hours when you get to the bottom of the list. That means fewer 747 Captains, fewer A330 Captains, all the way down the line until you lose the bottom 1000-1500 pilots."
Originally Posted by
TheManager
In regards to RH, did he, or did he not, state: SWA parity would require 1500 less pilots? True or false.
That, my DALPA acolyte, is planting FUD among the bottom 1500+ folks.
And for the record, not a DPA apologist. I would say more of a reform minded pilot that believes DALPA needs a reboot first and then a removal if that fails.
Fact is, ALPA will more than likely solve that by becoming irrelevant due to ongoing litigation and potential bankrupting damages.
That may be true because most of their line pilots pack in the hrs to FAR max. Go look at the MIT statistics, and you can see the differences in block hrs per pilot per month. There is also a table in those charts that tells you how many more or how many less pilots you need to hit another airlines block per pilot numbers. (Last time I checked they did not break out the international block hrs and the staffing ratios for them, and because of this, the numbers may be slightly off)
What is reality, is most pilots that want to fly here, do, whether it be though trip parking, swapping or picking up. Therefore I suspect that our company would like to change our staffing model, but for all intents and purposes would not result in less staffing, unless you mandated a min hours per month per pilot. (No way)
What seems to be omitted here as well, is reserve pilots can pick up flying and pay, they have a better min day etc. If you really want to make the comparison and make it mean something we need to realize that a lot of our block time is with augmented crews; which skews the statistics, we have a DPA, not a min day and a SWA pilot does not fly a 10:30 three day, reserve pilots can pick up flying over guarantee, as well as many other things.
I suspect a Hourly rate of SWA+ a few points with a min day not a dpa, same pay for line holders and reserves, DH days count as a min day, etc, the W-2's would be extremely close.
There is only so much efficiency that a corporation can eek out of a pilot group. SWA's will go down with the FT/DT. Their pilots' ability to pick up will be cut in over half and their staffing model will be totally done away with. I think it is very dangerous ground to try to mimic their productivity when in most cases, pilots here work a lot more than they do. It is the multipliers that make the W-2's differ. Most line holders I know fly to ALV+15 and then GS if they can. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to this. It would be sold as no furloughs, but in reality the group could shrink as we retire.
SWA has a model that works for them, but remember that it has also undercut every other pilot group out there. It has forced other airline management teams to make the turnip bleed more, we do not really want to add to that.