Originally Posted by
FlyZ
Honest question - what harm would be done by giving the membership the exact term sheet presented to management AFTER management has seen it? To whom are we "showing our hand" at that point?
- Management? They'll have ALREADY SEEN IT!
- The Delta pilots? Those are OUR cards. I want to know where we stand!
- The public? I doubt they care very much, and I don't see how this information leaking out would hurt our negotiations.
- Wall Street? That's the only place I could see it having an effect. Perhaps if shareholders see a huge gap, they would expect our labor costs to increase significantly. However, it isn't the job of our union to protect shareholder interests. It's our interests they ought to (and hopefully do) have in mind.
So, I don't want to see a watered down, generalized statement of what we are asking for. I want to know the details, both to give my reps guidance and evaluate ALPA's opening stance. How would that be harmful?
I'm a bit puzzled by this obsession with exact numbers in the opener.
I'm not sure what you expect to see. Is it the pay rate that is going to tell you whether this is a good opener or a bad opener?
Would it really make you guys happy if the union published a piece of paper that says we want a 84.2% raise in our Section 3 pay rates? What exactly would that prove? Does that show that DALPA is strong but if they publish a piece of paper asking for an 68.5% raise then that means they are weak?
Numbers like that are nearly meaningless at this point. You really want them to put a ridiculous throw away figure in the "opener" so you guys will cheer and then abandon it in the first 5 minutes of talks? It sounds like that is what you are asking the union to do.
I'm no expert but I think you guys may be laboring under a misconception of how these negotiations work. There are 28 sections in our contract and there is a cost associated with most all of them. The pay rate tables are only one piece of the puzzle.
By its very nature the "opener" is going to be a general guideline of which areas we think need to be emphasized but I'd be very surprised if it lists exact numbers for every section. Besides pay there are some very importabt things we need to get that are also just as expensive. Work rules, retirement, medical, disability, sick leave, vacation, etc. etc. etc.
There is going to be a long process before we have any real numbers.
It would be easy to "open" for massive improvements across the board but does that really help in actually achieving those improvements? I think not.