Originally Posted by
FL370esq
Based on past history, you are probably right. However, I think you and Trip are living too far in the past because I would posit that the zone of reasonableness has expanded/shifted based on corporate/industry performance over the last 5-10 years. What might have seemed unreasonable 3, 5 or 10 years ago may be with the zone now. Don't know enough about the AA ask that you referenced but I do know the B777 thing occurred because DALPA tried to leverage the former 3.B.6 provision regarding new equipment. Can you refresh me how that came out when the backdoor agreement was made between Leo the CEO and CG? What was the B777 pay rate? Didn't the same issue arise over the B73NGs too? And how did that impact pay rates for C2K? And, as I asked Trip, what was the company's counter to our ask? Were they solidly within the zone of reasonableness? I'm not so sure this thing is one-sided.
We opened on the 777 for 346 an hour with steps to around 400. The company opened for 232 an hour. Negotiations went no where and the company began to look for buyers for our firm orders. They sold half and we settled for 250 a hour with steps to 265. The then flagship MD11 payed about 210 an hour. One of the negotiators felt we could have had 265 stepping to 285 had our opener been more reasonable.
During the 737 negotiations we opened with a more reasonable number and reached a agreement without a lot of issues.