Originally Posted by
Timbo
3.B.6 was a clause in our contract that basically said, on any 'new' equipment, for which no pay rates existed, the pilots would fly it for 6mo (or was it 9 mo?) while they negotiated a pay rate for it.
If at the end of that time, no pay rate had been established, the aircraft would be parked until a pay rate could be agreed upon.
Our CEO at that time was Leo Mullin, from McKinsey Associates, king of all out sourcing. Leo said he would sell them (we only had two on property, but many more coming) and cancel the orders for more. Our then MEC called his bluff and we settled for a higher pay rate. ($265 in 1998 I believe).
The answer to both of your follow on questions is the same, "Labor Risk".
Too bad it's off the table now!
Oh, and we gave 3.B.6 away in a subsequent contract...sigh. We could have used it to get much higher pay rates on the 717's.
We originally opened for something way beyond 265 dollars an hour. The negotiating committee did not even like the opener and after the fact stated several times we could have had a agreement early on at a higher rate had we not opened around 400 an hour. We had 15 on order and with the disagreement the last 7 orders were cancelled.
3b6 was a one shot deal and we blew are wad. The company vowed not to take delivery of any airframe again without a agreement on rates. That basically nullified 3b6.
As far as Carl's question on UAL the Delta rates established on the 73n, 767-400 and 777 were well above anything else in the US industry. It forced the CEO of united to raise his offer substantially and UAL settled for what were essentially the 3b6 rates. The UAL referred to it as the Delta dot and said it tied his hands.