Originally Posted by
NuGuy
It won't be two years. Negotiations will be starting shortly to handle the FT/DT changes, but you can bet the company will use the opportunity to tweak the rules even more in their favor.
There are a fair number of guys chomping at the bit to relax what protections in the CBA we have left for the ability to fly even more. THAT will drive any hiring way out into 2015 and beyond.
A lot of the rah rah guys were defending the new FT/DT rules by saying "well, that's all well and good, but our CBA protects us against that", but when you press them they'll throw in the qualifier "we won't give that up unless they come to us with something REALLY good", meaning the decision to give it up has already been made, now it's just a matter of dickering on the price.
Put the term "really good" in the context of who says it. Really good might mean trading augmentation rules to match FARs for another %5 pay raise. That's a big win for guys who are at the top of the game, BUT the loss of staffing would devistate %80 of the rest of the group.
The FT/DT rules that we have in our contract are critical to our current staffing model (as the pilots see it). If that gets changed, hoo boy...
There is a really nasty confluence of events in flux, and the increase in the ALV and reserve utilization was only the first step. HND/NRT, FT/DT and the continuing downgauging of the airline is going hit, and hit hard if it goes a certain way, and WE laid the groundwork.
Be prepared for more message massaging....we went from 1,000 new hires, to 450, to 200, to being overstaffed, all in the course of the TA cycle. The same with the RMA. Consider where we are now, and what happens if staffing rules are relaxed even more.
Sure, we got a little more money, but was the money we got WORTH what we gave in return? If we kept our staffing rules the same, fought to keep the number of large RJs (70+ seats) at the previous level, and reduced the 50 seaters I'd say the trinkets we got were "meh, it's a gain, fine", but what we gave up put us at par at best, which is ridiculous considering our negotiating position.
As ACL says, the TA is now the working agreement, and that's in the past. But I really hope that people learned the game, and apply the lessons to the future.
Nu
So are you saying that without the TA we would be hiring 1,000 pilots now. By when would 1,000 be hired?
I can understand why don't want to paint the picture of what life without a TA would look like. Maybe you will answer these questions:
1. Since the TA, Delta has announced the shutdown of Comair, the retirement of 82 RJ-50's, and the acquisition of 88 B-717's. What does that picture look like absent a TA?
2. Without the TA would Delta have raised capacity next year despite the economic environment or would they be making the same choices they are now?
3. Without the TA would the world economic outlook have been any different that it does now? Would the world economy have any different effect on next year's capacity decisions than they are now?
4. Without the TA, would Delta have given the early out retirement program to 191 pilots?
5. Without the TA, when would Delta be hiring, how many, and why would they be hiring?
You talk around these issues like you seem to have some picture of how the world would be without this agreement yet you are quite vague and just post a bunch of conclusions with no facts to back it up. Please give us some facts so we can try to understand how we would be so much better off without this agreement.