Originally Posted by
justjack
Where to begin- Of course we have different cultures. I have been through four mergers now and I worked for another puddlejumper before that- before that the military- so I knew that I should never become anything more than a hybrid of my past. I understand that we are at a disadvantage in many ways as a union but we have to understand that we will never improve our situation except through collective bargaining. Perhaps this is the point that you are making as well. I understand that it was naive to believe that Parker would treat us the way that Richard Anderson treated his pilots. This is and has always been our fatal flaw.
The biggest issue that I have with your post and the reason that I am sitting down to write this on such a busy day is my shock and disappointment that one of our own would EVER write, " Everyone implies we are underpaid (below industry) but really who are we to BLAME in that corner? We still, on average, make about 4.5 times MORE than the national average of $50,000"
I have no idea what you did to get here or what opportunities you turned down or what your income ability is outside of the aviation industry. I do know, however, that I did more, have been and still am worth more than "average" anything.
Happy holidays.
I have been on the outside. I am not BLIND to the worlds industries.
I see it every day. But again, you miss my point and to that I may not be making as well as I should. Yes, you are worth more than $50,000 national average. Everyone can draw their comparisons from a varity of professions, classes, groups, whatever. My point is that if you explain to a Spirit pilot that you are underpaid compared to your peers you may get a different answer than one from a Delta pilot. It holds true that you will get a different answer from a regional pilot than a corporate pilot. And so on. If you ask your fellow American pilots the answer you get will probably be what you want and expect to hear in most cases.
Then you explain to a Wall Street investor that your underpaid and they may have a different opinion. Ask management and I'm sure you'll tell me how they feel.
And it is to THAT point I am speaking of. It's hard to tell management to pay you MORE when you already AGREED to work for LESS. YOU PROVED YOU ARE WORTH WHAT YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE BEING PAID NOW.
What I think helps explain what is just ONE of the groups necessary to determine YOUR value was the UCC in the AMR BK. You can read about the APA attorney James explain it that to make the merger work the employees were going to give them MEASURABLE costs that they could do the math with. It was below industry average for two years to make it sell to the UCC.
Read APA James' opening statement for the PAB. You can read it at pages 25-28. He didn't really do that good of it on his opening statement but he said to make it work you get a JCBA FIRST then a SLI. The pilots/employees AGREED to work for LESS than market to make the merger happen. Ergo the MOU. Because Judge Lane imposed statutory timelines on the labor groups to come up with a workable solution, they had to work quick and get assurances from all the labor groups.
So while the pay may be below Delta/United pay scales our other employee groups, who make a whole LOT less than us still look at our pay as a whole LOT more. Next time on the line ask THEM if they think we're overpaid. Now I don't agree with them myself but the answer you get you probably won't like.
Selling our pilot pay increases to management comes with baggage that the management may NOT be able to "sell" to their BOD. It isn't my job to sell it to the BOD its managements. But management has to have a GOOD MEASURABLE, OBJECTIVE reason to sell these increases to the BOD or its a "no go".
The BOD has a fiduciary duty to the investors to justify the change. But so far I think that is a difficult sell.