Originally Posted by
Chowdah
Hummingbear, I do not think you’re indignant, so I apologize for the lack of clarity there . But a lot of people on here are getting strangely emotional about this.
In an attempt to have a productive conversation, instead of straw-manning me, show me where I’ve advocated that we should ask for anything less than Delta +5. I think we can go a bit higher than that, but I’m just saying that if we manage to do it, it’s not because the pandemic LOA did the heavy lifting, it’s because we have the leverage to do so and should capitalize… literally.
I agree emotion is not helpful. I think there’s a general frustration that comes from the history. First, a bad LOA sold to us under a fear campaign of mass furloughs. Second, our reps ratify TUMI 1, which (until the the AA proposal is released) is initially met w/ what I’d call indifferent resignation. Third, the general sentiment that our LOA 5% is not worth a fight to preserve.
I guess for me, the 5% is sort of a culmination of this general “take whatever we can get without rocking the boat” attitude. While we were seriously considering major work rule givebacks & discussing the idea that keeping our wages current with inflation was a pipe dream, Delta was taking the fight to their management & getting all the things we believed were impossible. That helped change our perspective over here a little, but I think there’s still a general urgency to lock in whatever the company offers rather than fight for what we really want/deserve. I could be wrong, but my sense is that a lot of us would jump at Delta +1 if it were offered to us today.
My expectations for this contract are not astronomical, in my opinion. (No work rule concessions, general QOL gains, & pay that exceeds inflation & keeps us at the top of the industry.) I get discouraged with how frequently that very basic standard is judged as unreasonable. Protecting the 5% is not a hill I want to die on, per se, & I agree too much back & forth on the topic can become semantic. If you’ve decided your number is well north of Delta, I don’t think we need to get too deep in the weeds on where each dollar is coming from. I’ve just made a dispassionate calculation based on that LOA that slid my pay expectations north by 5%. Looking at percentages makes it very easy for me to judge the value of an offer because I can measure it against inflation without any complicated math. Right now, inflation since 2019 is around 18%, so any offer below that would be unacceptable to me. It’s just a simple standard that keeps the LOA separate & makes for easy evaluation.
Again, if you want 25% net, we’re roughly saying the same thing, & too much discussion of the LOA is just a distraction. My frustration is with the folks who are ready to vote in a Delta match, which I would see as sub-inflationary & therefore a concession.