Originally Posted by
ColdUpHere
I talked about the TA with a CA I just flew with. He is a solid 'yes' on this TA and, just as there are guys on the 'no' side who don't accept consenting opinions, I would describe him as not accepting the opinions of those who would vote 'no'...including me.
He thinks the 'no' voters could take Delta the way of NW -- as he is former NW. He says he'd rather have a certain pay raise than the PS anyway. I asked him why not take the raise and leave PS alone? He didn't have an answer. I brought up that the pay raises are nullified to some extent by the PS limits. He disagreed even though the math says otherwise. By not factoring in inflation, he also contends that this IS the richest pilot contract in airline history. He also said that slow & steady are the way to go...and that we'll get even more in 3 years.
He said the FO bidding grievance is bogus because some senior FOs are mad they can't sit at home and get paid for doing nothing.
He actually had a little bit of an issue with the sick leave rules but it wasn't enough to make him vote 'no.'
He basically said, "Sure...vote no. Then watch the company come back with nothing better. In the meantime, we lost months of the pay raise and guys are delaying flights because they are greedy and want more. Customer satisfaction drops. PS goes down. We lose our place at the top. Then someone tries to come buy us or take us over. It happened at Northwest. I've seen this all before. All because some guys wanted too much too soon. So go ahead and vote the way you feel."
Needless to say, it was a little awkward. I did try to lighten the mood by saying that the PS would be going down anyway with a 'yes' vote so no big deal there. I don't think he got the joke.
Not too many guys posting support for this TA but I have no doubt there are a good percentage of folks who agree with this CA.
I was a no vote.over the loss of profit sharing. That was and has been my only issue. I agree, why not the pay raise with profit sharing. The bigger issue with voting no now is that the no voters are all over the map.
JV scope:I don't agree that pilots need to get involved in airline business decisions. The company has proven that they will make their decisions regardless of our negotiated JV anyway, and pay us the 1.5% of salary penalty in the grievance. $30 million spread over 12,500 pilots is a waste of negotiating capital.
Sick: there are no changes that prevent me from calling in "mentally sick" less than 14 days. Over 14 days I'll be fully medically sick, and clearly verifiable. Providing the charts for the illness to the Delta doctor does not scare me. I had to do this already once before for disability. If Delta is going to pay me to get well, they can have whatever verification they need. The added disability account offsets any inconvenience for me, I simply go to work when I am healthy, and I don't when I am not.
FO OE trip buy: this is a benefit for the few, not the rest of us. I'd rather have our company doing better overall than paying guys to not go to work. My top priority is to hand other airlines their assess, and we can't do that without going to work.
My issue is with the loss of profit share. If we had a group largely focused on that single item, I world join the galvanizing force. Unfortunately we don't. We have a group that is simply angry with everything. I can't join that. If the company wants to decrease profit sharing so they can reduce it company wide, then add 6% to my defined benefit plan, but don't take it from my pay raise! Unfortunately, I'm on an island.