Originally Posted by
LeineLodge
I'm going through the live contract myself. In the meantime, can someone write up a concise, plain English description of the following:
Off the top of my head
1. JV's: How many do we currently have? In 100 words or less, describe "production balance". What loopholes current exist that mgmt could use to make Delta pilots obsolete? How can we patch these loopholes?
One "real" JV and that is AF. Virgin Australia is not quite a JV but it is different than the AF JV in the fact that AF is profit sharing and VA is revenue sharing. Because of this difference there is no need for a production balance. Any type of JV that is not "profit" sharing is only required to hold a floor of frequency for each party. Flying, by any metric does not need to be grown equally. Its the way its currently written, and is a major hole.
2. Codeshare: GOL comes to mind. How do we ensure that Delta continues to fly south of MIA? What other codeshare loopholes need fixing?
Domestic Codes Shares need our approval. I do not believe International CS's like GOL, China Eastern, China Southern, etc do not.
Come to think of it, we CS with HAA intra-island and I do not believe that needed our approval. I will have to look that up, but do not recall having to approve that.
3. Revenue Sharing: What is it? And does it negatively impact Delta pilots? How?
Revenue sharing is a fall back type of agreement in JV's Read above. This type of agreement does not trigger our language requiring a Production Balance.
4. Foreign Ownership: What's the big threat? How are we limiting the downside? Again with GOL and AeroMexico being partially owned by DAL, I see this as potentially getting out of hand. Virgin is another often-talked about player in the mix. How do we remain relevant internationally?
First per the PWA DAL is allowed to own 49% or less of a foreign carrier before any of our provisions kick in; 30% for domestic operators. Second, the biggest issue with FO is the fact that labor law, and therefore our PWA does not effect those companies and or pilot groups. Labor law is limited by our boarders.
Just think of a AF, KLM, AZ DAL merger. All unionized pilot groups, all with separate labor laws in four different countries. All we have is the ability to force DAL to negotiate on our behalf within the parameters we set in the PWA.
Furthermore, a foreign company only has to comply with labor contracts for workers here, not overseas. Nail that down, along with holding company language and there might be a way to not get slayed in the process. It also is way IFALPA and our relationships with these other pilot groups is so very important. If you think RJ whipsaw was bad, this would be 100 times worse.
Right now we have a six part, soon to be eight party agreement between all the major pilot unions in the JV and their respective companies. Its a start, but it does not cover everything. It basically states that everyone recognizes the other labor unions.
The way we stay relevant is to push for better international labor law, and holding company language that works for a type of deal that would have a holding company owning all of these airlines, but on the most basic level operate them on separate certificates within their respective countries. Cabotage also will require them to hold these certificates on the respective countries as well.
In the end, one post or series of posts cannot fully explain the effects that this will have.
For this contract we need protections for any sort of JV, Interline or CS agreement. Sunset or near sunset provisions on DCI, Holding Company protection that works inside and outside of the US, and a rider that forces DAL to have our agreement on any sort of flying that will put the DAL or successors code on the flights that we fly, previously flew, or would logically fly.