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Old 11-02-2013 | 09:39 AM
  #7809  
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DAL 88 Driver
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Joined: Mar 2009
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From: Retired (mandatory age 65)
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Originally Posted by LeineLodge
Further, lay out a strategy that gets me there and I'm all for it.

Chipping away at the agent that has successfully gotten back a good chunk of what was lost is counter to your goal of restoration.

Just because things aren't as you wish doesn't mean they are as bad as they could be. We have made some significant progress which I hope continues. I'd rather that continue in 2015 than squander opportunities while DPA tries to find which way is up.
See, that's where we just can't find common ground. You think ALPA has "gotten back a good chunk of what was lost" and made "significant progress?" I just don't see where the facts support that.

We took a 42% cumulative pay cut, lost our pension, and had thousands of our jobs outsourced. A 42% cut requires a 73% increase on day one to restore. The longer you go (with inflation marching on) the more that 73% number continues to grow. So here we are... almost 10 years later... and we are still at a 32% cut in buying power (which means the initial draconian 32.5% pay cut we took prior to BK has been sustained with zero recovery), we still lost the pension (got some things in exchange, but still a significant net loss of benefit), and still have thousands of our jobs outsourced. In terms of pay rates alone, in almost 10 years we've made about 16% progress out of the 73% needed. At that rate, we need way longer to restore our profession and our careers than the vast majority of us have left.

Sorry, you're entitled to your opinion... but I think if you take the emotion out of it and just look at the facts, you will see that we have made very little progress toward restoration.

Now if your objective is not restoration... If you've accepted bankruptcy as a reset and only expect "reasonable" improvements from that new baseline... Well then we've done pretty darn well and your expectations are in line with ALPA's expectations and apparent objective. Forgive me if I don't accept that and want to try representation that will at least TRY to achieve the objective that I believe is appropriate and worth pursuing.

Like Carl has said, ALPA is simply a poorly performing vendor. When a vendor performs poorly... and especially when a vendor performs poorly and shows no sign of even making an effort to improve... well in the real business world that vendor is (how can I say this delicately?) "let go." It's simply a business decision.
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