Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
The big picture is easy. One word, scope.
If we want "industry leading" on anything in C2012, management's answer will be that we'll be "more expensive" than Alaska, MidWest, Air France, KLM, Comair, Shuttle, Chautauqua, Mesa, ASA, SkyWest, Pinnacle, Mesaba, or Freedom.
We work for a division of Delta. Our bosses rally for us and hope we get more flying. Above them, "Delta Air Lines, Inc." is a diversified transportation management company. They look at Delta's product, then figure out how to serve that product with the 13 or more choices they have at their disposal. The most efficient choice is made.
On the other side of the table is our union. ALPA tries to look forward and negotiate agreements that ensure Delta pilots do Delta flying.
Without ALPA and scope our flying would be continually outsourced until we agreed to perform those services cheaper than any of the other choices, or we were replaced and irrelevant.
MidWest is an illustration of what happens when scope is relaxed to the point that the primary pilot group loses relevance.
Terrific analysis of the situation, Dude. I have said repeatedly that I want to be paid 1 dollar less than the Air France/KLM guys. Unless we can join with them in some sort of global union to go with our global airline we need to have an iron clad plain language scope section that defines who does what flying on the top and the bottom of the spectrum. It should be inclusive and the final goal should be all Delta/AF/KLM inc coded flights should have Delta/AF/KLM pilots.