Originally Posted by
Podracer
Any advice to a former long time regional guy on how to gauge leverage and not become too passive? I don't have a frame of reference except the regionals. I'm in year 4 and still in my honeymoon phase and feeling awash with privilege and riches. Compared to the regional grind my life has improved immensely in every possible way. I was a lot more militant in the regionals because I knew dam well I was being exploited, whipsawed, and getting a tiny crumb of the pie. Now, the status quo feels amazing when it used to be torture. Before I had what was happening at mainline to compare myself to, whereas now I am at mainline. Before I knew DAM WELL I was getting robbed and disrespected, now I'm getting treated and compensated how I felt I deserved.
Everything after the present is a new horizon and a situation I've never been in. I've never been in a pilot group with any power or say in anything at all. In the regionals we were at the whim of the market and whipsaw. We got raises when the company was forced by cancelling flights for lack of pilots, not because we negotiated or used any labor power. I've never had to look at contract cycles in this way. How do I not get too complacent? How do you actually gauge how high or low the bar should be? How bold should we be? How confident can we be in our ability to use legal job actions. How concerned should we be for the long term stability of the company? I don't even know what questions I should be asking. I just know this will be my first new contract at a mainline job and it's hard for me to imagine anything being better than this, while also feeling lost at how to approach this new situation.
I don't want to needlessly vote yes on something when it makes no sense just because I still have regional pilot brain.
Just because you are well compensated and not completely beaten down doesn’t mean you are highly respected and valued. The “Delta Family” is a pretty facade but the real interior becomes more apparent the longer you’re here. There is a general disdain for pilots that permeates the company and upper leadership. They put up with us because we are needed to move airplanes. We are viewed as a cost item to be maintained rather than true partners in the success of the company, regardless of what platitudes are splattered on deltanet and company memos. When push comes to shove you need to be looking out for yourself and your family because the company won’t. Everything you are now enjoying, from the pay rates to the soft pay to scheduling rules, etc have been hard fought gains through numerous contract cycles. The company would take everything away they could if given the chance, and in many instances already is trying. Just look at how they have been attacking PB days. Look at how little effort they are putting into crew meals. They ask us to go above and beyond every day at work but getting them to go one step beyond what the PWA requires is a nearly impossible task. CPOs are supposed to be our advocates yet they are completely neutered in any dealings with other departments at the company.
What can you do? Stand in unity with whatever the union asks us to do. Value yourself and the contributions you provide to the company. Don’t settle for less just because things are pretty good now. Push forward so things are even better for yourself and the next generation of Delta pilots.