Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
They will not go for paying the other employee groups here less to perform the work, they will want us to eat it.
Sure they will go for it. They are already not only going for it today, at this very moment, but they are militant in insisting that it be the case. They will demand a lower compensation scheme for FA's, Mechs, Dispatchers, etc and they would get it very easilly by framing the debate with them the same way they do with us: You want that flying/work back? What are you willing to pay to get it back? The answer will be zero, and a B scale or fake alter ego company like Regional Elite will be born in 2 seconds to facilitate it.
As bad as we are with being short sighted, other work groups get it less because they don't even really get what scope even is. When they are told we are bringing thousands of new FA jobs in house but they will be on a B scale or isolated at a separate company
or they will have to "pay for it" then they will pencil whip their own B scales faster then ALPA ever dreamed of doing.
but why on earth would they agree to eat that cost, or no make us pay for it when by our PWA there is no reason for them to bring the flying back.
You mean in the post 9-11 emergency survival PWA that the company recieved an extension to in order to facilitate a massive revenue producing merger? Well of course, nothing in
that PWA is going to force the issue. But that misses the point.
What I am showing you is the cost benefits of outsourcing. Pilot labor costs are a small fraction of the savings
Agreed.
The days may be numbered, but the practice still exists, and when they start accounting for the cost of the debt as it is structured today, they will change the structure.
Of course. When will that be? Who knows, but all it will take is one well regarded analcyst to start doing it and that fake phony paper paradigm will change on a dime...but naturally the ivy league's best and brightest will have already committed to decades of leases and CPAs and only after being caught completely off guard will proably come squealing to us for some kind of relief that involves more outsourcing.
The key for the DAL pilots is to find a way to make the winning argument and stance for DAL seniority listed pilots to be ay the controls, no matter who "owns" the jet, or who turns the wrenches et al. We can do it, but we need a stronger commitment to force the issue from this pilot group. Until that happens, no much will change.
No doubt about that. My point in all this is that flight attendant, mechanic and dispatch costs are not our concern, and furthermore they aren't much of a concern to the company since all they have to do is toss the red meat of a B scale on an issue the other work groups don't even understand and they would just as likely end up saving even more money. I'm just tired of the "what about the FA's and other work groups, that makes it too expensive" arguement. Its not our problem and not even a concern to management really.
You can disagree but it saves them a ton of money in outsourcing. Airlines like SKW were able to get better rates on the debt, reduce DAL's visibility and debt service reporting, all the while keeping the virtual network alive and well. In the end we voted for it.
I do agree that DAL wants brand recognition, but seems to no want to in-source the work to control the brand. With all of the code shares et al, they really do appear to desire being a ticket broker more than an airline. We can and have in the past stopped our airline from making bad decisions. I hope that we can show value in performing your own work, and not just value that can be easily reported on a 10K. The real value of performing your own work or flying in our case comes in the form on a overall appearance and perception of a product. That often cannot be reported as a line number on a balance sheet. It shows up as loyalty with a larger bottom line, but no in the way the mba's of today are used to reporting.