Originally Posted by
Hawaii50
You said we're partially to blame for the sad state of industry compensation.
I realize you're desperate to discredit what I'm saying, but taking stuff out of context and mischaracterizing it doesn't help your argument at all. The following is everything I said about the subject:
Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
If it's a competition to see who's the highest paid, then they've placed pretty high (almost won, but then there's that pesky SWA).
If it's pursuing the objective of restoring our profession and putting our careers back on track, then they've been a miserable failure... essentially sustaining the 32.5% pay cut we took almost a decade ago in an extreme emergency! Yeah, DALPA's set the bar for formerly bankrupt carriers. And that's part of the problem IMO... They've set a bar that essentially says we agree that we're not worth what we used to be and that we don't expect restoration. I think a good case could be made that we (DALPA) have screwed the pooch for the entire profession by demonstrating acceptance of bankruptcy as a new baseline from which we only expect "reasonable" improvements going forward. Imagine how much better everybody else might be doing if we had set a higher bar...
Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
I think we share a big part of the blame. Primarily because of the success of our company and the prominence of our pilot group in the industry, we've been in a leadership position within our profession. We've been the first pilot group post-bankruptcy to be in a position to define how we will recover. And the "definition" we've given is that the extremely unreasonable cuts we took in bankruptcy were a reset, establishing a new baseline from which we only expect "reasonable" improvements going forward. How could we set a bar like that and NOT damage the others?
Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
Our company is in much better financial shape than theirs and arguably has a better outlook for profits going forward. In almost 10 years, we've restored the 14% pay cut we took with an 1113 gun to our heads in bankruptcy and allowed the 32.5% pay cut we took prior to bankruptcy to stand.
With that kind of bar set by the pilot group that is supposedly leading the profession out of the abyss, why would you expect them to be able to exceed our rates?
If pattern bargaining is alive and well... based on our performance in an environment of extreme profits, we're screwed (and probably so is everybody else).
Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
Where did I say ANYTHING about blaming us for the sad state of the industry? I said we're partially to blame for not having made more recovery. We set a bar that essentially says restoration is not our objective. In our position of leadership, it seems obvious that this is detrimental to anyone else that would pursue restoration.