Originally Posted by
Scoop
I pondered it for more than a minute and the only answer I can come up with is "Who knows?" You are going into an alternate history type of thing. Maybe the company would have just rolled over and agreed to it - or we could still be going toe to toe working under C2012. What did your pondering suggest?
Yep - it would have been awesome to have kept that language but it also would have been awesome to have kept the pre-2012 PS formula.
You are making it almost seem as if it was totally optional and we can just "choose" what we get. It is not optional. We are in negotiations with the company which by the way has a lot of legal and governmental tools on their side. We were also disadvantaged by being up earlier in the cycle than AMR and UAL for seemingly ever.
With all of that said I see no reason why we shouldn't take a much firmer stance this cycle and if it drags on for a few years it may very well be worth it. Then again it could drag on for years and we might end up in the same place.
As a wise man named Yogi once said "Predictions are hard - especially about the future."
Scoop
My pondering has let me imagine that the 5 raises since 2015 would have triggered 5 reviews and increased our pay RATES to industry average while maintaining our profit sharing and former language with regard to sick leave, trip coverage and every other concession that would not be, as we patiently waited for an acceptable PWA. You are correct that this is alternate history but there is nothing speculative about the rest of the company being limited to no wage increases unless there was a pilot increase while still conducting section 6 negotiations. Since then, the non-cons have had annual or better raises of 3-4% and returned to the pilot profit sharing plan. We nearly solidified a provision that negated the punitive nature of prolonged negotiation which is management’s primary leverage.
I’m dreaming, I know and I have to live with our collective choice and reality but it should never be forgotten what we gave up. I continue to think this was a huge one. I’m sure others have their own regrets.
It struck me as strange that this is acknowledged publicly by the company when previously it was not a concern, but now is used to tout our above average compensation. Negotiations are on going and this propaganda would never make Deltanet if we were still getting raises without having settled. Maybe I’m the only one who thought a mechanism to not stagnate wages and continue raises was a TVM dream come true.