Our current rates are a 34% reduction in buying power versus 2004 C2K. For a 51% W2 increase (the amount it would take for full restoration), I could live with all that.
So could I! I agree that our pay rates are far too low. I think we disagree more on the method than the goal. All of our reps and negotiators live and get paid by this contract as well. I think that the compounded effects of lots of modest improvements on a fairly regular basis are more effective in the very long run than holding out for one big improvement, that you eventually get, but had to wait a long time for. You disagree. That's fine.
One thing about all the work rule improvements is that in my opinion, we don't need to expend much negotiating capital to improve what has recently already been improved. Now we can focus more of our efforts on pay, retirement contributions, and health care costs.
10 hours is the minimum layover per FAR 117, so the 9 hour layover, reducible to 8 is no longer legal and is therefore an irrelevant point.
True. I only mentioned this at all because the original post briefly touched on 117 degrading his quality of life (though I do not agree). Obviously neither the company nor union brought that about.
Are you seriously suggesting that you'd prefer your above list over a 51% pay increase?
Nope--only that money isn't everything. The example I always give is the one of the last times I had CQ the old way. My base month was November, and I wasn't scheduled for CQ in either October or November. I had Christmas plans to visit family out in Texas. Want to guess when I was scheduled for CQ? Back to back A period sims (which I hate) on December 26 and 27. Yep, the two days after Christmas, in the 86th and 87th day of my 90 day window. The rest of my family still traveled. I got to stay home and go to the sim at 5 am--and this while I was top third in a big category (ATL 7ERB).
Why? Why did we tolerate a system (for decades) where the company decided when even the #1 pilot in a category attended CQ, rather than letting him or her bid via their seniority? "Because that's just how it is." All the C2K payrates in the world didn't prevent my holiday plans from being hosed due to an antiquated system of scheduling training. As it is, I am very glad we changed things, added vacation slide (I've brought that up so many times I'm becoming boring), positive space for deviating from DH on both sides of the trip (when I got hired we didn't have it for either, then we got it for end of trip, but not for the beginning, and now we have it on both sides).
So, no I am not claiming that our improved work rules make up for huge pay cuts (though we are nowhere near the depths of 2005) but it does not have to be an either-or equation either.