Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
Good for you, sailingfun, re: your personal minimums. But I'm a little confused about something. To bring our MD-88/90 pilots (who are the ones doing the most comparable type of flying to SWA pilots) up to SWA pilot pay would require approximately a 50% increase. To bring our pay up to C2K+COLA ("total restoration") would require approximately a 70% increase.
Basic negotiating strategy is to open for more than you're ultimately willing to settle on. So if you think it's wrong to open with a 70% increase, yet you think it's wrong to open with anything less than a 50% increase (I'm assuming that because you said your contract survey "will reflect that")... don't you think that is too narrow a range and does not allow the room needed for negotiation? It just seems to me that you're making an inconsistent and/or unrealistic argument here.
I believe the MD88 is a valid comparison with SW and should be the baseline aircraft. I don't however get the math on your pay raise numbers. Going into the contract our MD88 rate will be 168 an hour. The SWA rate will be around 212 an hour. We get 4 percent more DC so adjusted that is just over 174 an hour. It takes about a 21 percent raise to get to SWA if you use the MD88 as a baseline.
I know your going to say they get so many more hours then we do. When you go to mediation you have to back that up. The facts wont support you. I got a kick out of guys using the SW pamphlet to the Airtran guys picking parts and then miss representing them. Here is a example. SW lines average 12 to 13 days a month. Very true. Delta lines are about the same on average. Good ones are as few as 9 days bad ones 15 or 16. Then they state the average Captain makes 226,000 a year at SW. Also true. The problem is the average guy does not do that working 12 to 13 days. That 226,000 number is because most SW guys pick up extra time as do most Delta guys. We had one guy compare the 70 hour reserve numbers with the average numbers at SW. Not a valid comparison. The average Delta pilots gets almost 1100 hours pay a year. Some a lot less and some a lot more but that is the average. That average also floats way up and down depending on staffing however it does the same at SW. Thats why there were so many upset FO's in 2009 at SW. No extra flying. The exact same situation existed at Delta. Big paycut for many guys.
I would like to see SW wages on the 88 as a baseline in this contract. In addition I would like to see some changes in work rules and sick and retirement. Sick leave needs to go back to the old policy. The current policy is purely punitive as a result of the grievance we won. Retirement needs to go to 16 percent. The reserve guarantee needs to go back to floating with the ALV. 23k needs to be changed so replacement flying comes after reserves are used but ahead of GS's. There are a lot of other small things I want improved however I also fear we get into a past contract syndrome where we open for so many items the process bogs down. American did exactly that.
I would like to see the MEC prioritize the top 30 items from the surveys and go to management with just those 30 items. That gets rid of any excuse from management to the NMB on why things are taking so long. They can't go to the NMB and say that we opened for 1156 changes and it takes time.