Originally Posted by
DALFA
At most other carriers where the FAs are unionized the pilot union does indeed just negotiate for pilots. Officially, that's also what happens at Delta. The problem you run into at Delta is that management is so worried about FAs unionizing that if they were to agree to massive increases for pilots they'd have to give something similar to FAs or fear that they unionize. That's why I said that ALPA "indirectly" negotiates for other work groups as well. You see, the old way of thinking at Delta is that the pilots would get more if the FAs stayed non-union...but we know for a fact that's not the case. Just look at the results you've achieved versus the pilots at other airlines where FAs are unionized. As I've said many times, the pilots actually would benefit from having another major work group unionized.
You can keep on trucking the old, good ole Delta & Moak line of thinking or you can adjust your position based on the information at hand and visible results.
Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't care.
I don't care about the company's lame worn out labor busting playbook, and that's what this is really about.
Its not the end of the world if the FA's unionize for DL. Look around the industry. DL FA's have it pretty good over all, although I'm sure improvement are needed. There is only so much the company is willing to pay for the flexibility of having a non union FA work force. Once that threshold is crossed, I'm sure they will be happy to say fine, unionize and get in line, it'll be 3-5 years for your next COLA, just like they're trying to do with us.
What "Moak line of thinking" are you referring to anyway? We do NOT negotiate for you. You are NOT entitled to a single "ME TOO!" from anything we negotiate. If you get it anyway because the company deems that cheaper than you unionizing, then great, but that's not our concern.
I will tell you this though: your group should only unionize if they have the desire and unity to do so. And I don't mean 51%. That plays right into management's hands. Based on the last couple attempts, you're no where close to being there, even if you can somehow cross the 50.1% threshold by a few percent. If that's all you can do, you are
far better off without a union and leveraging the company's desire to keep one away IMO.
Now if you have the unity one day, then great! That's going to take time though. Less time if the company isn't good enough to you, and more time if it is. But the pilots don't negotiate for you. Period. If the company wants to "me too!" something we get and give it to you because they feel doing so saves them money in the long run by keeping a union away, that's between them and you.
If you do unionize some day, you can start off by negotiating SCOPE that exceeds ours, not trying to "me too" our pay raises and other irrelevant out of context things. This debate as some want to frame it really translates into DL pilots should pay with lost value in our PWA to keep a FA union away. That's not acceptable to us nor is it our concern.