Originally Posted by
TANSTAAFL
Excellent points, however in all fairness what is the base line for that 25% pay raise? Recovery from a 50% paycut means we are only -25% from salaries of 10 years ago. Wu-hu. Confetti and a ticker tape parade for us.
How about career progression? How many jobs have been added at DAL/NWA in the last ten years versus the carriers we outsource our flying to?
Don't get me wrong - I think an independent union would have been even less effective, and would be far worse going forward, but waxing poetic about ALPA's accomplishments? Puleeze.....
On the same note, I think some of USAPA's failure is as much driven by circumstances beyond their reasonable control as were our failures of the last decade. I imagine had we had an arbitrators seniority decision similar to the USAirways one we'd be every it as dysfunctional as they are.
Glass houses and all that........
I think many are pragmatic about the external realities surrounding both, the difference is many are sick of ALPA's arrogance and dogma when the realities are far more blurred.
Pilots are way smarter than to bite at the us/them, black/white, good/evil spin, and insulting their intelligence with those tactics is backfiring.
You are right, we took a lot of hits and everyone else, save SWA, did the same. So then you have to figure out how to dig out of the hole you are in. The APA is still stuck in the hole. USAPA is stuck in a hole twice as deep as we ever were in. Show me anyone who is climbing out of that hole faster than we are right now and I will be like them. Right now I don't see a model different than ours that is actually producing better results. What bigger contrast do you have over two wildly different strategies and two wildly different results. What shocks me is how people look at the USAPA crowd and say "let's adopt their tactics."
The Airways pilots do have control of how they react, you always have control. Poor leadership has simply fed the populist sentiment instead of trying to break the logjam. People talk about expectation management like it's a dirty word, but good leaders would have tried to refocus these pilots on the realities of the world rather than follow this charming lawyer down a dead end.
So I will not wax poetic, but I will continue to point out differences in results. In bankruptcy, the Delta pilots saw that we were not going to get what we needed in traditional compensation, so we went non-traditional with the claim and note. $2 billion later we were able to get through the worst time in Delta's history with the least amount of pain possible. The Airways pilots are stuck with moronic ads in the USA Today and calling their CEO a poopy head in public. Now if they were producing results, I would study what they are doing and copy them. When their Captains make less than our First Officers on the same equipment, then maybe they should take a look at what we are doing.
The industry has changed and it is still changing. DCI is down about 150 airframes since the merger and there are more to go. Delta mainline has essentially stayed the same even though the industry got shocked with massive fuel price increases. We can either grow and lose money right now or we can wade through this economic mess and still make solid profits. Both Delta and Northwest were hiring like crazy right up until the time they started furloughing after 9/11. Maybe we would like them to follow a different course this time.
To me, it's not the hand you were dealt, it's how you react to it. We have continuously added into our contract from the month we exited bankruptcy. We continue to try to add every month forward. For me, I am now making about $22,000 more a year than a few years ago, on the same equipment. Maybe some are independently rich but that's a lot of money for my family. So the question I have to ask myself is, "Do I want the money, or do I want to look at an ad in the USA Today calling Richard Anderson a punk?" I will take the cash thank you very much.