Originally Posted by
El10
Again lets start from the top and see if you can follow along. First lets address your claims of supporting management. What my entire point was at the day of my retirement I want to seen my peers gained the most possible money, have had the most time off and the best quality of life possible while securing the future for the next generation to have it better than we did. I work to live. I want peoples work to be the best so they can have a better life. Then and only then will we have succeeded as a union. Its not about me and you. Its about us combined. How do we get the most for US?
So the question is how do we get there? One approach is take ever dollar today and not worry about tomorrow. Sounds like the rational scabs used to cross the line. Forget consequences, take till it hurts. Another approach is take the best possible at the time, but take more often.
Moving on to the point about using decision 83 to set rates. Yet some of the same pilots turn around and state they do not care about productivity. So if we do not care about productivity of our aircraft why not ask for more?
Then we got the pilots that want all the companies money and every other employee to be volunteers. Real union brother there, again I got mine the rest of you go get your own.
Then we have the debate about shifting the pay rates up on the 777 and 744 at the expense of the other fleets. Good deal for those drivers, but bad deal for the rest of the pilot group. Each negotiation is a give and take followed by an allocation. Everyone wants the allocation that suits their interests the best, not necessarily the group as a whole. Those that think a negotiation is just a unlimited pot of gold that we just need go grab, must believe in the leprechaun that guards it.
Something that is still fresh on everyones mind is the combined seniority list. Why do any of you care what seniority number you ended up with if you only care about taking the most possible at any cost? If you really do not care about the success and profitability of the company what do you care about your "the career expectations". Everyone cares about seniority because its the best guide to what our future may hold. Everyone is so optimistic based on that number as to what they will be able to hold in the future. So do not tell me you don't care about the future of this company.
To make it crystal clear I have hated what has happened to labor this past decade. We have seen that at every turn we have been out played by management. It is painfully clear that the strategy we used and continue to use has failed us. Until we wise up and come with a better approach we will end up leaving money, time, and improved quality of life on the table. We have lots of bright minds in our profession that can come up with what that new strategy is. We will make some mistakes along the way, but we can do better.
Why did I know you were going to come back with a long "one beer too many induced RANT" - it is Labor Day. I was going to rebut each point but then realized you would likely not remember why you uttered most of it and waste my time. Few points though.
We are labor and live and die by the senority system. Without it we'd be working for RJ wages as management played one against the other.
My supports falls on the side of Union representation and today, that's ALPA. Our youngest and brightest work within that framwork and not in a flight office to achieve good results for the pilots.
You desire to give Jeff and Jeff like management free rein to modify or violate our contract is a mistake. We are stakeholders and not share holders. His decision to pay billions to the share holders are at the expense of all employees(stakeholders) will come back to haunt us when the economy turns south or DL and AA decide to move away from capacity restrictions. Jeff put our airline and jobs at risk to protect his job. That's the guy you want to follow?
Pay banding does nothing for pilot productivity or manning. Don't know where you came up with that stuff.
You didn't answer the simplest of questions. You stated "we have profit sharing as a back-stop". Would you tell us YOUR average profit sharing over the last 5 years and what you expect in profit sharing over the next 5 years.