The Wrong TA for Our Times

Must Read: From my friend. He has given me his permission to post this on his behalf. Name removed as to not violate forums rules.

The Wrong TA for Our Times

No white paper has the space to dive into every detail of any complex pilot contract TA. The bottom line is that this career historically contained three pillars: Money, Days Off and Retirement. Our profession already lost too much Money, too many Days Off and too much Retirement during the lost decade of the 2000s.

The worldwide pilot shortage did not happen by accident: airline management, aided by courts, media and politicians, spent decades systematically destroying our contracts, cheapening our profession. This drastically accelerated after 9/11. They used a one-time tragedy to eliminate our traditional 98% income replacement A + B fund retirements, while forcing higher productivity for far lower inflation adjusted rates.

By late 2012, as UPA negotiations were completed, the overall MEC consensus was that the UPA was still a concessionary contract, but justified as a step in the right direction. The initial hourly pay rate raises were modest for all pilots except pre-merger UAL 320 pilots. We had to wait until later years of the UPA for better rates, and did not get truly decent rates again until the Delta bump activated the me too clause.

Severe and persistent inflation is as much of a reality as the severe pilot shortage is. Our last raise on January 1 2019 gave us a 12 year WB CA rate of $351.87. Using the BLS CPI inflation calculator, that top rate needs to be $414.22, right NOW, TODAY, to break even with January 2019 adjusted for official CPI. Worse, take the May 2001 UAL 12 Year B777 CA rate of $277.30. To break even on the CPI calculator, we need $462.39, right NOW, TODAY!

Yet what does this TA do ? It makes us wait until as long as January 2024 for a maximum rate of $403.45. This TA would have provided pay rate raises that still fall behind inflation, while also allowing concessions in other parts of the book.

Obviously, this does not even begin to address the tremendous loss of Defined Benefit A plan retirement benefits, or compensate us for massively improved productivity since 2001.

Small improvements to LTD are nice, but our total package of annual pilot sick leave accrual and LTD pales in comparison to Delta’s. Their pilots also have short term disability and mutual aid plans. Why don’t we?

The new savings plan does not improve upon the 16% company Defined Contribution. Defined Benefit is still 0% for 2005 and after hires and very small remaining amounts for 2001 and earlier hires. The TA only creates a new vehicle for spill that exceeds IRS PRAP limits. Excess previously spilled to our RHA, and now spills to our active HRA. 16% DC is still 16% DC.

Negotiations are sometimes referred to as a give and a take, yet all management did for an entire lost decade of the 2000s, was take. The same can be said of the past two years. We fall further behind every day. We survived one lost decade. We cannot afford another.

Management reaped what they sowed with this newsworthy pilot shortage that will only get worse. With inflation at 40 year highs, we deserve dramatically better - and SOON.

They won’t simply hand it over. They must be forced. Some history:

Leftover CAL management led (loosest possible usage of that word) by Smisek, completely stonewalled us, from merger announcement until the end of 2011. In early 2012, the UAL MEC hired DC lobbying law firm Patton Boggs. The Joint Negotiating Committee then suddenly closed out scheduling in a matter of months.

Management then stonewalled again on economics, both MECs left two June 2012 meetings early, and we met again and voted to take a strike vote the following month. Most of the media made it sound as though a strike was imminent. Pilots picketed. UAL saw a massive loss in future bookings. We finally secured an Agreement In Principle in early August 2012, and had a TA that November 2012.

The moral of the story is that it sometimes takes aggressive action to achieve better results.

This concessionary TA is a slap in the face to our entire pilot group. The pay rates fall behind our January 2019 rates adjusted for CPI, and they fall massively behind historically good rates like May 2001. There is no increase to 16 % company DC. Changes all over the book have caused consternation and anger in our ranks for good reason. It is a near certainty that an overwhelming majority of us voted no on this TA. It is the wrong TA for our times.

Now it is time to show this MEC in no uncertain terms: We are United. We will not stand idly by and witness the destruction of our careers. Our peers at other airlines have been picketing. Why haven’t we? Enough is enough.

Fraternally,
CA TB
Former MEC NC Member/Former LEC S/T
(initials only against forum rules to post names)