Originally Posted by
Albief15
I'm not a business major, but I will ask one question...
Exactly HOW LONG did those great contracts rate last? Even before those sons of *****es hit the towers, Delta and United were hurting and the economy was slowing as the stock market bubble imploded.
I'm a strong ALPA guy. I love my company, but I understand that my UNION (and the other unions out there) created these great work rules and benefits, not the benevolence of my employer. Still...to pay 300 bills an hour, a company has got to make money, period. You cannot pay what you don't have. No furlough clauses, A plans, pay scales, and work rules all get flushed as soon as chapter 11 is declared, and judges--not MEC presidents--make the call.
I don't know exactly WHERE the line between "nice" and "unfeasible" lies. You have to have negotiators who are business saavy enough to find a solid compensation package that will not kill the golden goose. At the same time--we all know that some companies have gutted employee benefits while rewarding poor management along the way. That ain't right either...
However--the whole "FedEx and UPS (and SWA as well) are just catching up..." ignores a point. FedEx, UPS, SWA, and even JB and Airtran pilots have had a job the last 5-7 years. If you look at career earnings, the guy who was hired at Jetblue in 2001 may just end up making more for 5, 10, or even 15 years than the poor bastard furloughed for 5-7 years at AA, DAL, or UAL. I am quite confident that the guys at SWA, UPS, and FDX certainly will.
What is my point? When you choose a company, pay scales are a tiny part of the matrix. Q of life, benefits, employee relations, and stability are all also a big part of the decision. There are a lot of guys at SWA, FDX, and UPS who made a DELIBERATE decsion to choose stability over high pay scales. For the last 6 years, it appears that they made a good choice. Chasing Delta or UAL payscales in 2000 was a lot like buying Qualcomm at 200+ bucks...it was sweet while it lasted but it just really wasn't sustainable. However--the trip pay at SWA and better than 200 bucks an hour at UPS/FDX apparently ARE sustainable with their business models. I hope that doesn't change for the worse.
You bucking for a MGT job............???
Companies have professional negotiators and Know all the numbers before they sign a contract. They won't sign a contract that they can't afford to pay. To say (MGT) couldn't afford the pre 9/11 contracts at the time is ludicrous. Yes financial pictures change, but having been in the industry for over 20 years, the labor MGT relation hasn't changed much. You get what you negotiate period. MGT will never pass up the opportunity to attempt to pay as little as possible even if they can afford more. When the lean times come Pilots have historically always coughed up pay concessions. When times get better (as we are currently seeing) MGT has never come to Labor and said, "you helped with Pay cuts during the lean times, now that things have turned around, here is a little pay raise for the effort"
It's best to Always go for the gold. If you have to settle for Silver or Bronze so be it. And sometimes you won't win a medal but vieing for one anyway is how things get done.
To say FedEx will always be Stable or will never have financial problems is beeting on the come........if 9/11 occurred with Fedex and UPS jets instead of AA and UAL my bet is we would have furloughed when we got shut down for a few weeks.............or if ol' Auburn would have succeeded.