Originally Posted by
sailingfun
The cost for a full restoration contract with the exception of retirement would be about 2 billion dollars a year.
Here is the important question. If DALPA opens for a full restoration contract . . . [or] DALPA opens for less and is able to get a contract done on or near the amendable date . . . is that a failure?
$2B, huh? Can Delta 'handily afford it' - even if it's 1/2 that?
The contract that doesn't prioritize scope and merger protection is the one that's a failure. 'Pay me now' or 'pay me later' scenarios are both irrelevant if Alaska keeps growing (7.2% growth vs. DL's 2.5% in 2Q2011) their codeshare, if over 50% of DL's domestic flights are RJ's, if Air France/KLM continues to grow the transatlantic flights of SkyTeam, or if Delta somehow gets pulled into a SLI that is anything like AirTran/Southwest, US Airways/AmericaWest, or Frontier/Midwest/Republic. Lose your seniority, lose your QOL, maybe even lose your job - would that pay raise you got really make up for those kinds of losses? Like insurance, you don't want to pay for it, right up until you wished you had it.
Originally Posted by
DAL73n
The thing we need to remember is there are lots of ways to make more money other than a 50-60% pay raise. . . .
Those are just a few quickies to make more money with the same or less work.
Making more $ with less work isn't a very good goal - it doesn't benefit Delta, just raises costs. Look @ Southwest - their pilots make $ by working hard on their days of work, and the company benefits with increased productivity. That is a goal that everyone can get behind on both sides of the table - add realistic incentives to the contract that reward pilots for working, and reward Delta for good scheduling - in short, better rigs. Pilots get paid either way (soft $ or actual flight hours), company reduces costs by scheduling the pilots productively, so they earn the $ through flying the plane, rather than get it all in soft pay while sitting around on duty or away from base, but not flying. More days off, higher pay for days at work, more productivity from the employee - that's good for both sides. More $ in pilots' pockets, less $ wasted on inefficiencies by Delta.