Originally Posted by
lineplug
I've been doing some thinking. In the grand scheme of things everything involved in the negotiations boils down to money. That is where the focus should be. Two of the most items that have people fighting mad are the sick leave and LCA concessions. How much money do those two items really cost the company. After all, using the info we are getting from DALPA, sick leave is only abused by a few and the LCA change will only affect 2-3% of FOs. If these items only apply to such a small group then how much money could they actually cost the company?
The real money is the PS change which will reportedly save the company enough to cover our raise plus some. Which of the items does the company really care about? We need to make sure that we don't let the opposition control our focus.
Someone brought this up here a few days ago. What do we think would happen if the company announced, on say the 23rd, that the proposed changes to sick leave and LCA trips would be scrapped? I wager the TA would pass.
I may be wrong about this but it would be a masterful bit of negotiating by the other side. Tell us the number one priority is sick leave and throw the LCA trip grenade into the room to fragment the pilot group and keep the focus off the real issue (PS) . Did someone just pull the Jedi mind trick on us?
Any contract in the era of record profits should have a lot more money in it!
I agree, it is about money.
Now, where did a lot of the Money Delta has been calling Profit come from since our pay was cut 42% and our DB funding stopped?
We are still being paid 18% below 2004 rates, and we still have very little retirement funding compared to our old DB plan funding. DALPA should have been keeping track of OUR SACRIFICES for the past 11 years, and they should have a number to throw at the company, and at the NMB if it comes to that, regarding exactly how much of Delta's Billions were paid for by our concessions.
But DALPA failed us. And now while the company is returning our pay cuts to the shareholders, DALPA wants to finance pittance raises with still more concessions, in profit sharing, in scope, in sick leave, and in quality of trips for F/O's.
Yeah, it's about money, OUR MONEY, being used to buy back stock and double the dividends. Meanwhile we are self funding our pay raises.
Brilliant strategy there DALPA.
