Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Thats always the big question and I have never understood the secrecy. ALPA’s Economic team is very good at costing. If they say the companies offer is below Delta I would believe that. The question is how far below Delta is the offer? 1% or 10%? The next question is how far above Delta is your table position. That’s a very important number that never seems to get published. Keeping in mind that mediation will drive you to the Delta solution plus a % or two deciding to go that route is a tough choice for your negotiating committee given it adds substantial time to the process. Time is not your friend if you are looking at where your career earnings will end up.
In the United case you probably have more leverage than Delta because time is also not on managements side with your training situation. Time however works for management with the substantial sums saved delaying the contract. Full retro never happens in long delayed contracts. You get zero retro on work rules. Delta’s MEC preached that they would NEVER sign a contract without full retro and even wrote it into the union bylaws then caved on the issue for about 30 cents on the dollar.
Delta did have one thing going for them that you don’t at United. A less than smart CEO who went on national TV saying the Delta pilots would never be allowed to strike. The mediator took great offense to that statement. She controlled that issue not EB and threatened a near immediate release to self help if Delta management did not put an offer on the table that could close things out in a week. I doubt SK is as stupid as EB.
Very interesting post, thank you.
A brief comment on one item that I am lately reconsidering. There seems to be a consensus here and elsewhere on the issue of unfilled captain vacancies and training. I admit I agreed with said consensus up until someone pointed out that we have hundreds of surplus 737 captains in IAH, ORD, and DEN. We are staffed way more than what is needed to fly the hours we currently have. The company achieved this by offering captain vacancies in domiciles that were highly desired versus where the actual need lay. I have to believe this was done with intention on the part of the company to provide a buffer that gives them the supply of pilots, both CA and FO well into the future.
In other words, I'm not so sure there will be any pressure on the company to meet their pilot need for quite some time; not to mention that hiring seems to be continuing unabated regardless of negotiations stalling.