Originally Posted by
Gomerglideslope
You continue to lionize SWAPA, and I certainly have no quarrel with giving credit where credit is due, but lets not forget that their current industry leading pay rates are to no small degree thanks to the benchmark that DALPA set in 2000.
And while SWAPA has been a very effective advocate, their latest success (playing whack-a-mole on the Airtran pilot's domes) was facilitated in large part by SWA management...SWAPA has never really seen adversity, but now that the company's seemingly endless stream of profitable quarters has come to an end, and their cost advantage has been eroded, if UCal or AMR or DAL pilots don't close the pay gap quickly, then we will see....
Salient points, but C2K permitted far more outsourcing than SWAPA has ever allowed or SWA management has ever even wanted. Our managers are addicted to outcsourcing no matter what, and DALPA plays right along...sometimes "holding the line" keeping massive outsourcing from becomming even more massive outsourcing, other times with fake "limits" like only 76 seats in a 90 seat RJ (the number management wanted anyway with a first class) meanwhile half the airline is outsourced to the lowest bidder. I'm sure SWAPA could "trade" that away for higher base hourly rates if they were dumb enough to think that way.
For DALPA, "holding the line" is not enough. Scope needs to start bringing jobs back to the Delta seniority list in Contract 2012 for DALPA (really ALPA) to have and maintain the level of credibility necessary to continue to represent this property IMO.