Originally Posted by
RJSAviator76
Actually, our scope was solid. Our LTD STILL needs to be worked on and is one of the main reasons I voted no on our TA2. Yet, it's light years away from yours... and it shouldn't be. Yet, you're choosing to settle for it. You're also totally failing to see the retirement gain in our TA2 as opposed to TA1 and the effect it had on our income... we no longer had to contribute money in order to get anything from the company towards retirement and this is after the company and the pilot naysayers were saying we'd never see B-plan on the property.
Sure! Just like some people like to be choked, slapped, hogtied and whipped as part of their bedroom fun...
It's not just PBS. Assuming you wear the 'Discount Fares, Not Discount Pilots' lanyard... do you think you'll live up to that if you vote YES? Only you can answer that...
How long have you been at SWA? I’m not sure what your LTD entails but our proposed LTD has a max own occupation benefit of $15k with 5 years of medical coverage. If yours is better than that bravo but this is a huge improvement for us over current book. You also mentioned DC retirement... this TA gets us 11% DC date of signing maxing out at 15% DC end of contract which is pretty similar to what you guys achieved in your last contract. As far as QOL goes, outside of your 6 hour daily rig (which is huge) I’m pretty sure our rescheduling and reserve language is far superior to SWA’s and we maintain that advantage in this TA despite some give backs. Our pay rates are obviously disappointing but as has been mentioned previously we were hamstrung by the Alaska arbitration and the NMB.
At the end of the day there are huge gains in this TA. 43% average pay increase, LTD, vastly improved scope, DC retirement, improved rig package, and retention of key QOL provisions. I’m also pro PBS as line bidding is archaic and agreeing to PBS moved the ball forward on a vastly improved rig package for us. I’m not sure in what world that is considered a failure. Maybe if SWA pilots didn’t undercut the entire industry on wages for 30+ years until 9/11 came along I could take your criticism a little more seriously.
At the end of the day this is a business decision. Short of another $15-$20/hr, profit sharing, and full retro there isn’t much more to be gained here. I’m not going to pretend like I’m not disappointed that we couldn’t achieve all of those goals this round but I’m also realistic. I’m not willing to gamble the other gains made here in order to possibly get an extra $20k/year in 12-18 months. If a SWA pilot wants to look down on me for that decision I couldn’t care less. I’d love to see how our proposed compensation package compares to SWA’s compensation package in relation to the rest of the industry when they were of equal size. I’m willing to bet it’s not close.
SWA pilots should be proud of what they’ve achieved. Your narrow body compensation is now on par with the legacy’s and your scope is the envy of the industry. You guys work your as$es off but at least you’re paid well for it. Bravo... well done. Let’s keep things in perspective though. This has been 50 years in the making. Certainly didn’t happen overnight or in one contract cycle for that matter.