Originally Posted by
Navmode
Not at all, I'm merely playing devil's advocate. If you want my opinion, everyone should make $100k, healthcare should be free, and the company should buy everyone a Ferrari every year. However in reality, they negotiate on a fixed amount of money based on projected profits for the life of the proposed contract. That means once we fill our bag with 'whatever' that reaches that amount, then there's no more to get. This is regardless of how much leverage we have reference their ability to hire fo's or how bad the current book is.
The negotiators said when they tried to bring up health insurance the company got nervous about their exposure worrying pilots would flock to the company plans if they made improvements. Let's be clear the company does not want you or your family on Mesa's health insurance. The exorbitant cost are designed precisely to drive people away. I realize there is only so much money to go around but we should not be enabling the company to get away with this pretending it's not an issue. After seeing the lackluster "gains" in this TA that still allows the company to get away with murder I've come to the conclusion that ignoring health insurance was a mistake. While it might not be as "sexy" as Long Call Reserve, etc. it is money in your pocket. And for that matter what percentage of the pilots are on reserve anyway? If you want to put it all towards compensation I get it, but just understand a cut in insurance is the same as a raise.