Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
I would hope that neither DPA nor ALPA would be just about scope. While that is one of the top (if not the top) issues, I think our compensation an extremely big issue that should not be ignored. This is one of my biggest problems with DALPA. They will not state restoration as an objective. They make it sound like our current situation is a new baseline from which we seek traditional improvements. Anyone who suggests the kinds of increases it would take to even make significant progress toward restoration is immediately dismissed as being "unreasonable."
DAL88 Driver,
Without scope, pay rates do not matter. The Company will simply outsource the jobs and no one will earn the negotiated pay rates. Refer to the "restoration" of B scale at Express for an example.
Scope was sold in an attempt to preserve pay rates, which only lasted until concessionary bargaining and bankruptcy. In other words, your MEC sold scope for credits you never received. You got nothing for it.
Now we got nothing to trade, unless you want to trade 100 seat flying. If you are an MD88 driver, you most likely would be effected by a 100 seat scope sale. It is a vicious circle.
What you don't know is that now your MEC only represents about half of Delta flying. As jobs have been outsourced, so has their power to represent a monopoly of Delta's labor. Your union is less able to secure higher pay rates because they have less leverage.
There is also the issue of economics. Here is a chart of yields in our industry. There are two components to getting you the pay restoration you seek:
(1) We must control the flying. It has to be done by us.
(2) Our industry needs more revenue.
> 2a. One way to force more revenue is to get the other pilot groups to negotiate higher pay rates too. The best way to do that is a strong national association.
The chart below clearly shows the money is not there to simply stomp our feet and demand more. Candidly, I think our MEC has done a pretty good job leveraging what they had to work with. We are currently near the top of our peer group. To advance we really need American, United, and US Air to help hold up their end of the pay scale.
