Originally Posted by FleetSnarl

Unfortunately, our negotiating environment is not governed by a free-for-all capitalist dynamic. It is regulated by the terms of the Railway Labor Act.

Under the auspices of the RLA, the courts have established the parameters of industry-standard or industry-average as important legal benchmarks.

So, you could say something like, “You know what, instead of paid uniforms and dry cleaning and paid parking and all of that other ancillary stuff, I calculated that I could but that on the open market by myself for X dollars. So, I want X dollars on top of my industry-leading pay rate instead of the company providing those things.”

It wouldn’t be impossible, but it’d make the negotiation (needlessly) more complex since providing for those things in that way is not standard in this industry. It would also open up the possibility that we settle for less compensation in lieu of those ancillary items than is required to purchase them on the open market (kind of like the situation with our FAA flight physical reimbursement right now).

First job (and not an easy one) would be to get the other side to agree to our valuation of those items. Then, we’d have to get them to agree to pay us that much more. Do those things simply get added into our pay rate or are we reimbursed or are we given an allowance or something else? That’s a set up for failure and for longer, more dragged-out negotiations.

When we negotiate in terms of what is industry standard, it creates apples to apples comparisons and makes the areas where we fall short that much more clear to both parties and to the NMB. It increases the chance of obtaining wins for our pilot group.