Originally Posted by
SonnyTuckson
We are asking for an unrealistic raise we know they cannot give, so that we can keep fighting for fighting.
We will never get parity with the AA/DL/UA. We are not doing the same job, no one, except ourselves, is comparing us with them, they dont even see us as equal to them, our pic's dont have the same responsibility, stress level and stress ours have. NetJets pilots delay flights at will, refuse to go at will. It is unrealistic to ask parity. And on a side note, I do not want their vacations packages and I do not want their heal care insurance packages, among other things.
The company walked out of negotiations after getting fed up of the union negotiating committee walking at snail pace, asking for irrelevant things in an IBI, trying to renegotiate a contract mid-term.
The $245K extra I was going to make in the next 3 years, base pay + FDP, was looking pretty good. The SDP offer was pretty good. There were stupid points that could have been argued and discussed. The negotiating committee walked away. Decided for the first time in the history of negotiation that an BF is actually an LBF ha ha ha. That was done purely to lengthen the fight. ML loves a good fight, not always been interested in the results.
How do you have any idea what they can and cannot give? How do you know that what the union is asking for is unreasonable? How do you know that the union is asking for parity with the the big 3 majors that have gotten new contracts or TAs? That isn't what they said when I heard some of it from the mouths of our negotiators. I can say that parity with JetBlue has been mentioned. I can say that the parity with JetBlue was mentioned because they have a similar (and now maybe even slightly smaller) revenue stream. AJ is on record demanding at least a 10% profit (which is far and away higher than JetBlue's profit). That seems to indicate that the company could pay parity or more than JetBlue. The company did give the books to the economists hired by the union this year. They did determine what the company could afford. The pilots were polled and initially asked for less than the company could afford. I do believe the next ask will be even higher. I seriously doubt we will ever get parity with Delta or the others, but I will continue to push for at least keeping up to a similar percentage behind that we were before their new contracts and I can't understand why anyone believes that is unreasonable.
I also don't really understand what your argument is concerning the stress levels of captains at the majors vs NetJets. I can say with certainty that there is stress for any PIC in any position and that PICs at the majors also delay flights and sometimes refuse to go when it is unsafe. I know for a fact that they can also call in fatigued. We are responsible for less people, but that is also the case for the regionals. FedEx and UPS are also paid vastly better than NetJets and they have zero passenger responsibility unless they are flying a jumpseater. Basically, what a company can pay comes down to money in and money out, not stress levels or the amount of people in the back. NetJets has enough money coming in to reasonably pay a lot more.