Originally Posted by
XHooker
... had we gone straight "retro" the mil leave pilots wouldn't have gotten any retro anyway.
Originally Posted by
tmac3333
Not true. Delta pilots out during the entire time on military leave received retro pay. I don't know what they used as a calculation or whether it was called a signing bonus or retro payout, but they all received checks, many of them quite fat, but they also receive annual profit sharing checks for their entire mil leave time.
I think of pure retro as the difference between what you would have made had the new contract been in effect on the amendable date of the previous contract and what you actually made. You need pay rates that go back to the first year after the last amendable date to do that. If you didn't turn a wheel for UniCal, you weren't harmed by the lack of a new contract over that time period, since they weren't paying you anyway.
It sounds like DAL/NWA, like us, had a signing bonus. The terms of that bonus apparently included significant pay for those on mil leave. Our bonus was structured differently. I'm not making a judgement on what's right or wrong, I don't know the case at all. My bet is that the plaintiffs will not recover their legal fees.
ALPA national needs to make a uniform policy on this.
Maybe, but ALPA seems to steer clear of boilerplate in contracts and I'd guess it doesn't want to step into the retro business either.