Originally Posted by
Alan Shore
Got it. Here's how I meant it:
I do believe that our reps fully intend to ask for significant improvements to our compensation, far greater than were achieved in C2012. I believe they will succeed because the economy, Delta's profitability, and the industry are all significantly better than they were in 2012.
That said, I do not believe that our reps "phoned in" their negotiations for C2012, nor do I agree that our raises were tiny or paid for by onerous concessions. As I understand it, our raise was to the tune of $400M net per year over three years (or about 20%) and was mostly but not fully paid for by the RJ deal. While I am not a fan of allowing more 76-seat jets by any means, I believe that the hard overall caps on DCI that were part of that deal made the whole thing palatable.
Bottom line -- I believe that our reps did well in C2012 given the circumstances then and will do significantly better in C2015 due to significantly better circumstances today.
Okay. That helps. Now. Tell me a little more about your expectations for C2015, Alan.
See, in 2012 we were in a position where we needed about a 72% increase to fully restore our buying power to what we had during most of the 1980's, 1990's, and early 2000's. Like you said, we got about 20% over 3 years. Measured against the objective of restoration, mathematically that was pretty poor progress.
Now, in 2015 we are in a position where we need about a 50% increase to fully restore our buying power. So what is your objective, Alan? If Alan were king, what would you open negotiations with and what would be your bottom line for a yes vote? Do you think your reps are thinking along the same lines as you?
Note to Sink r8: Hopefully you've turned on the ignore feature by now and are not having to torture yourself with reading a discussion about our future.
