Originally Posted by
Excargodog
^^^THIS^^^. Just like fuel costs and landing fees and sales taxes are considered just a cost of doing business, revenue sharing should be too. A good accountant can finagle depreciation schedules, equipment purchases, etc., etc., to erase profits on paper to avoid profit sharing. Revenue is revenue and the JCBA ought to require the pilots get a fixed percentage of it.
Major airline CBA's specify that the profit used in the profit sharing payout is the same numbers they report to shareholders. So using accounting gimmicks to hide profits from employees will also be hiding profits from shareholders. This can work in the short term, but never works in the long term as it would harm share prices, harm investors, and also harm executive compensation, as the bulk of executive comp is based on stock price performance...
If it were so simple, or even reasonably possible, Delta would be doing what you say and avoiding paying gigantic profit sharing checks to the employees.