76drvr

How is it that sole goal of our union now is figuring out what color lanyard we will wear? It seems that the bulk of union efforts for the past few weeks have been centered on this orange lanyard and alternately begging, threatening and berating anyone who does not wear the lanyard. Just think back a year ago when we started negotiations, the pilots’ primary priorities were to get more pay and get it in a timely fashion. If the union had stated back then that our primary goal was to change lanyard colors and that we would forfeit $24,000 a year per pilot to get this lanyard, there would have been a revolt. Yet now, with little to no discussion about priorities of the pilots, we are now engaged in a lanyard war, that even if won, will net us absolutely zero.

In order to understand how we got here, you have to step back to a macro view that we live in a capitalistic economic system, one that is guided by markets and market pricing. Imagine a car dealer that told you that his bottom line price for a new car was 45% above invoice. You would walk out immediately. Imagine your neighbor that decided to put his house on the market for 45% above what other comparable houses in that area sold for. How long would it take him to sell that house?

In C2K we got top of market (United) plus 1%

In 2016 United got top of market (Delta) plus 4%

In January Delta offered us top of market (new United) plus 5%

In December, ALPA offered top of market (new United) plus 45%

That’s right 45% above market. When the NMB talks about the “Zone of Reasonableness” it should really just be called the “Zone of Common Sense”. Common sense capitalism along with a long history of pattern bargaining would tell you that you don’t take leaps of 45% above market. Any sane person would recognize this. You should expect that the executives, Board of Directors and shareholders at Delta would exercise the same principles of capitalism that you would apply to any transaction you make from buying a gallon of milk to a house. You won’t pay 45% above market.

So that brings us full circle to where we are today. A bunch of MEC reps convinced the pilot group to take a shot that voting no would lead to a quick deal with lots more on the table. It hasn’t and now we are stuck with a conundrum; admit we were wrong and walk back to the table to accept a deal similar to the rejected deal or just shoot for the moon and hope no one notices the foolishness of our position. In general, pilots are stubborn and hate admitting they were wrong, especially the MEC reps who led the rebellion, reps with a long history of shooting high and then failing (more about that later). So what do you do when you are stuck in this conundrum; well you wave a shiny object off to the side and get the pilot group looking at the shiny object hoping they won’t notice that we are on the road to nowhere.

I sat across the table from many of these same people (Bartels, Lewis, Hay, Mayer, etc.) during the seniority integration with Delta/Northwest. They applied those same failed policies of aiming way above market and refusing to budge. Us Moakies applied the same principles we applied in contract negotiations, define the market and then push the edge of the market as far as you can without straining credibility. It did not go well for them. Which of course leads to the question, if the Moakies are so weak and the Bartels crowd loses to the Moakies, what does that make them?

That explains the new obsession with lanyard color. If you can’t accomplish anything you might as well provide some phony conflict to distract everyone’s attention from the facts that their paychecks are short $2,000 a month and there is no credible plan to get that back within the next few years. You can paint your whole body orange and it won’t change the fact that we live in a country guided by capitalism and capitalistic principles. I can assure you that even if you don’t believe in capitalism that Delta does and the NMB does. By the way, so do arbitrators.