Originally Posted by sailingfun

The reduction in profit sharing that was monetized in the 2012 contract was about 1.9% in return for an additional 2% in pay rates. Those rates became the cornerstone of almost every contract at the major airlines moving forward and that 2% has compounded with subsequent raises to about 3%. I guess the question becomes would we have the exact same rates today or would they be 3% lower had we not monetized that money. The one thing I do know for sure is I got paid that 3% last year and profit sharing was zero. I suspect our current rates would in fact be lower had we not done that as raising rates across the industry is always a stepping stone approach across the major airlines. Our 2012 contract broke open a long term stagnation airline managements managed to hold onto far longer than they should have been able to maintain.