Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
Thanks for your perspective, ACL. I totally understand what you're saying.
It's not that I think we should pound our fist on the table and demand restoration every time we meet with management. The problem I see is just the opposite... our MEC folks never talk about restoration. I think this sends the wrong signal to all concerned parties (including our pilot group and management). I think it sets expectations that are too low all around.
The one place where I really disagree with you is with regards to whether management really understands our objective. Sure, they know we want restoration. Who doesn't want to be paid as much as possible? But our actions (and especially what I'm reading here) would indicate that we have accepted as reality something substantially less than that. I just think that can only serve to work against us.
Now when have they had the opportunity to do so with managment? Look, I'm all for getting C2K and then some, but post bankruptcy there has been one TA. That was negotiated on the front end of one of the worst economic downturns in history with oil skyrocketing. Not exactly a strong time to negotiate more money.
That being said, I agree that restoration should be a goal with the next set of negotiations. Management owes this pilot group raises for the things we've accomplished since the merger was approved. We worked our butts off to get intergrated, and achieve an SOC. LCC doesn't even have a single contract yet, let alone a SOC. We did it in what I'm sure is record time, and we did it for the biggest airline in the world. That alone is worth restoration IMO.