Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I thought it was even worse than a concession. It was a third rail we would never touch. Virtually every poster on here said no contract ever without full retro! I posted here in late 2019 that time was the companies friend and they would let it work it’s wonders and we would never see full retro. That’s exactly what happened. For all of 2020 we got a 4% non compounding bonus that didn’t cover inflation. A entire year that cost the company 150 million. Funny how everyone on here blasted me for saying 1 billion in the first year was reasonable. You screamed 1 billion was woefully inadequate and voted to take a 1 time 150 million payment.
There is another large concession which is a 4 year contract. In TA2 even the union admitted the 4th year was a concession. We now over a certain 7 year period and probably 9 or 10 year period managed only 1 bite of the apple.
Lets look big picture here. About every 10 years we have a "Black Swan" event that management uses very effectively against labor. Early 1990s - war and recession resulting in POS C-96 and furloughs. 9-11 resulting in furloughs, LOA-46, BK, and finally LOA-51,
pretty much the nadir of the industry. 2008 financial crisis that management really couldn't maximize to their advantage since labor was already at the 9-11 low. Covid - resulting in UNAs, not furloughs, and a mutually agreed upon 2 year pause in negotiations.
Now who in the industry has raised the bar this friggin century? UAL in 2000 and since then, drum-roll please............................... us, the Delta Pilots. We have been consistently agreeing to serious productivity work rule concessions back to and including C-2000, yes C2000 in which we were blindsided by RJs and opened the door for that whole fiasco. And I am talking real concessions, not imaginary ones like since we did not get X - that is a concession. UAL and AAL pilots never really had to bargain much for rates they just matched us and concentrated on work rules QOL etc and wisely included snap ups in their deals as they will currently.
So we didn't achieve full retro - yes that sucks, but we did get a partial non retro sort of retro signing bonus. When you look at the outcome of all the airline Black Swan events we clearly came out of this the best and primarily, IMHO, becasue of supply and demand. If there was not a serious Pilot shortage this contract would have looked a lot different, and by that I mean crappy at the historical norms of Black Swan PWAs. As much as we think we can just bargain a little harder with a little more backbone and get what we demand, we are severely limited by two main factors the RLA and supply and demand.
So while not perfect, I will take this as a win, look forward to my non-retro sort of retro bonus and feel very confident that we set zero precedent as far as retro goes. We got 100% retro in 2016 - did that set a precedent - Hell no! Just as this will not set a precedent -
each negotiation is vastly different and the playing field is set by existing market conditions, so yes if there is another Black Swan that delays the PWA for three years we will probably not see full retro but given the historical sub 1 year delay - I'm betting full retro will be required to pass.
Scoop - just my cents.