Originally Posted by
Carl Spackler
First of all, this is NOT an equivalent of two years of normal paced negotiations. What we've done so far is about 4 or 5 months worth at a "normal" pace. It's about double the pace that's "normal." Which brings me to point two, which is: Why would that be the case? Our management team has a fiduciary responsibility to minimize costs. What fiduciary duty would our management team be pursuing by accelerating the pace of negotiations? Are they hurrying to increase pilot costs to the corporation? Or are they hurrying to decrease pilot costs to the corporation?
This is not even arguable it's so clear. Management is hurrying to decrease pilot costs to Delta. To do anything else would put them in fiduciary breach. What management is hurrying to prevent is almost immaterial. It's only important to understand that they're hurrying to REDUCE costs. That is leverage for us to pursue OUR goals with the TIMIMG being secondary.
Carl
Carl,
Maybe the company:
1. Wants to get profit sharing for all the help reduced.
2. They believe that in order to accomplish #1, they need to start with the pilots. (The other groups can be done without negotiating) The optics of cutting the non union profit sharing, without cutting the pilot's profit sharing, could be pretty ugly.
3. A contract that adds cost to the pilot group can be offset by the savings garnered from the rest of the employee's profit sharing reduction. Even though the rest of workers will probably see a pay increase, it can be sold in with smoke and mirrors to look like it's a net gain.
I don't see the company's desire to get a quick deal as an automatically bad deal for us.