Originally Posted by
ColCargill
Tony, thank you for serving the membership and council 26 specifically.
While I realize that you were only explaining the history, you included a point about fairness while discussing multipliers. I have great issue with that and have heard pilots nearing retirement discussing as much. No one deserves special treatment. The sins of past MEC's are in the past and multipliers are simple pandering for votes. Each of us is fairly compensated twice a month for the work we perform. A new contract is simply and agreement for future work and in no way should be an attempt to payoff a select group that thinks they deserve better. We need to move forward together without looking at the last contract with regret.
FLAME AWAY
Sorry, no flames. Just adult conversation
I agree with you that no CBA should be a "payoff" to any select group. However, with such a diverse group of ages and seniority, it's not always possible for every pilot to enjoy the same benefit from a specific improvement to the CBA.
I think of it similarly to how I think of treating my kids. I have seven. They are all different. They have to be treated differently. If I treat them all the same, it would not be fair to all of them. In order for me to treat them all fairly, and appropriately, I have to treat them differently. I have one who was extremely stubborn and sometimes required ... can I say this is a public forum without being accused of child abuse and sent to jail?? ... she sometimes required corporal punishment to within an inch of her life (it's a figure of speech, folks) to get her attention. Her younger sister would wilt if I simply looked at her with a disappointed or cross face. The two of them required different treatment to be fair. If I had tried the disappointed face with the first one, it would have done nothing. If I had used the same corporal punishment on the second it WOULD have been abuse.
Establishing a "B" Fund, as we did in 1998, and increasing the "B" Fund benefit, as we did in 2006, helps pilots with many years left until retirement more than it helps pilots on the eve of retirement. Thus, it doesn't benefit everyone the same. In both of those cases, a different benefit was negotiated to help those who would receive the least benefit from the establishment or improvement of the "B" Fund. Pilots weren't treated equally, but I think it was fair. Nobody got a pass, and nobody got left behind.
I can't say that about every "targeted" benefit we've seen in every CBA. Some were targeted at pilots near retirement, with nothing equivalent for young, junior pilots. Some included an intent to take care of the next "band" of age/years of service pilots in the "next" CBA, and some didn't even try. We don't need to negotiate benefits for select pilots which amount to payoffs for CBA votes.
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