Originally Posted by
RhinoBallAuto
Thanks Scoop... this all makes sense. For the most part, these are intangible elements, more than black-and-white bottom lines. Bullet #5 definitely provided an "ah-ha" moment for me... but #3 and #6 drove it home.
RBA, I think you may have glossed over bullet #2--forgivably so, from your point of view. I transitioned from .mil to .civ flying in 2013, and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around a lot of concepts (let alone finer points) involved with this....
Anyway, #2 again for reference:
Originally Posted by
Scoop
2. As has been previously posted management may often have plans that are not executable under the current contract. This can vary from certain nice to have items to items that can produce millions of dollars in additional profits.
NOT trying to take anything away from Scoop's excellent analysis/overall points/other bullets, since I agree with him and found much of it to be thought-provoking. However, I think #2 is a bigger part of this
from the point of view from which I understand you to be asking the question than a quick summary of "bullets"--particularly at its #2 position--might lead you to consider.
Some of those "not executable" plans are things management simply cannot escape (training load created by accelerating retirements coupled with fleet changes and exacerbated by an outdated pay scale [E190])--and the fact that these are all situations created by management and/or highly visible that "should have" been planned for better [eg, age 65]. For better or worse, management chose not to hire well beyond the point that they needed to do so--and, now they reap what they have sown... and they literally
cannot, under the terms of the existing contract, get the training done at the pace it needs to get done. That's a management "want," one to be negotiated against pilot "wants."
Pilot wants can generally be lumped into two broad categories: compensation & QoL. Company wants are all over the map, but they all boil down to money: as someone commented, not necessarily the lowest cost, but the highest profit for whatever cost. The mere fact that (a) the company wants things they can't have under the existing contract provides motivation for them to (b) negotiate with the pilot group to "pay more than the status quo" (as I think you phrased it) in exchange for those company wants.
NOW factor in ALL of the other reasons Scoop & others have cited. The company may well be in a position to stall (either in reality or as a negotiating tactic), but they do have motive to negotiate. Where will that motivation take us...? Hell if I know!!