Originally Posted by
LeineLodge
My disagreement I guess is that I believe we HAVE made significant gains (or recoveries, depending on how long you've been here) in the past 2 contracts and various LOA's. Are we back to the buying power of yesteryear? Clearly not. Are we better off than if we had made the "big ask" in C2012 and ended up mired in the Section 6 process (subjective but a likely possibility IMO) and still living under JPWA rates - along with UAL/AA/USAir whom have all basically piggybacked UP to our level? I say yes.
While not extremely satisfying, the last round did effectively pull the industry up significantly in a time of projected, yet not quite realized, financial success.
Times have changed, and now financial success is no longer projected - it's here and then some. At the risk of sounding like a forum radical, now is the time to make the "big ask." If not now, then it will never happen.
It will be difficult to achieve, but Delta can afford it, and if they act quickly enough might even force the competition up as well (ref the AA industry snapshot in 2016.)
I'm still pondering my survery, and have not hit the submit button yet. However, my number is a lot closer to your 25/10/10 than 4/8/3/3. I don't care if they want to hide it in work rules, rigs, etc so it doesn't actually look so big, but now is the time to recover what was lost in this career.
I meant it when I said a few posts back that I expect Delta pilots to SHARE in Delta's unprecendented success.
I like most of what you're saying. I really do. But to characterize the gains we've made as significant progress toward restoration... well that just doesn't fly. Looking at pay rates, we took a 42% cut. 10 years later we're at a 34% cut (adjusted for published inflation, which arguably doesn't fully reflect the true cost of living increases). Mathematically, that is very little progress given the amount of time it has taken relative to the amount of time the average Delta pilot who has been here during that time has left.
And we're going forward with essentially the same strategy that brought us the results to date. I just don't see that working. What do you think will be different? Like I've said many times before, I absolutely believe that proactive engagement is the way things should work in a healthy business. But it requires a mutually respectful relationship where both parties work together for each others' benefit. I don't see a 34% cut (greater than the percentage of the pay cut we took prior to bankruptcy in a desperate attempt during an extreme financial crisis to keep Delta from filing bankruptcy) in today's environment being representative of respect being show to us as professionals or as human beings. Do you think management is suddenly going to recognize this on their own, without any prompting from us, and make it right?