Originally Posted by
hockeypilot44
I'm guessing the number is between 15-20 percent raise upfront. Most pilots I talk to seem to think that will put our 737 rates equal with Southwest's.
This board as a whole is a minority full of extremes. We are a bad sample. We are mostly young, junior, and optimistic, or old, bitter, and ****ed off.
I already said I would vote yes to a short-term contract that locks in scope with a 20 percent raise upfront if the deal would go into effect January 1, 2013. That said, I originally put 70 percent down on the survey, then went back and changed it to 99 percent. I was called on Friday night to do the phone survey, but I was at a hockey game. I got disconnected twice so I never did get to answer any questions. It's a shame because I wanted to voice my opinion. Oh well.
Whatever percent we decide to shoot for we must also consider profit sharing. I know our profit sharing does not even come close to making up for what we gave away - but it is something, and we should consider what, if any, affect it should have on our pay rates.
I remember that an argument for profit sharing went something like this: We are making a major sacrifice, if the company becomes profitable we want our share - thus profit sharing. Plus something like the fact that it would adjust with the economy to help our company be more consistently profitable - profit sharing reduces, down to zero, in lean times and increases with profitability.
Well I was originally very skeptical about profit sharing and still am to a certain extent. The $$$ amounts do not seem proportionate to our sacrifice as a pilot group. I, like most guys, was also skeptical about the companies ability to hide profits, but was told, seemingly correctly, that we had that covered.
Anyhow my point is this - we are all concerned about the bottom line, in other words, what do our W2s say at the end of each year. The company is worried about sustained profitability (and the ability to justify management bonuses, that make our profit sharing look pathetic, by the way).
So, should we consider improvements in our (DAL Pilots specifically) profit sharing as a way to increase our compensation? I Don't know the answer to this question. I personally would prefer an increase in pay-rates over improved profit sharing. I assume most guys think the same but that does not mean that we should not look at improving our profit share mechanism as one way of improving our contract.
Food for thought.
Scoop