Originally Posted by
BigHitterLlama
I don’t know how to phrase this but my intent is not to be pessimistic or throw rocks or anything like that.
I’m still new and I’ve heard a lot of talk from captains that “scope/jv’s/loss of international” is going to be my and my contemporaries problems and if something isn’t done we “won’t have much of a career” or something negative to that effect. I understand that a lot has been lost on the international side up to this point. But when I ask what can be done about it or how this problem gets fixed I get a lot of “that radio call was for us” type responses. I’m all for fixing the problems but being new and clueless it would be nice to hear ideas on how to go about that. Bullets are notoriously difficult to get back in the gun once the trigger is pulled. There also tends to be a fair amount of union impotency comments. Does anybody have a solution? People tend to get disgruntled when dalpa filed a grievance and it’s basically the only dance move I’ve seen so I guess I’m just curious.
Thanks for posting these links and dates NE.
As you mention, it's extremely hard to undue the international scope damage already done. But the answer to your question is pretty simple. Going forward, we as a pilot group can do a couple of things to at least stop the progressive erosion of Delta international scope:
1. Make it abundantly clear to your DALPA reps at every opportunity that Scope is the #1 issue for coming contracts. Urge them to stand firm on at least 50% as a MINIMUM production balance in any JV (that's 50% in any and all possible metrics that can be applied). We may not be able to immediately undue some of the damage done, but we can at least hold a line on future JVs.
2. Exercise your vote with the proper emphasis on Scope in upcoming contracts. If there's any issue that should be a single issue voting criteria in future contracts, it's Scope. If Scope is not acceptable in the next contract, be ready to vote "NO" and prepare for a long drawn out fight until it is acceptable.