Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
Come on, ACL. You have a good idea of how pilot costs fit into the big picture here. I highly doubt that the difference between our current pay rates and something like, say, a 50% increase would have been the difference between growth in 07/08. In fact, do you remember what happened to fuel prices during that time period? That was way more significant to the company than a pilot pay increase would have been.
And there you go again wanting to tie our pay to profitability. I would say that's okay if we had not taken a 42% pay cut and we were just trying to negotiate a traditional increase. But we are digging out of a huge hole... and we're never going to make it with this mentality. Right is right and wrong is wrong. And it's wrong for the company to take advantage of us like they are. Like I said before, it's time for them to pay the piper. If they thought pilot costs were permanently reset to half value and they weren't planning on any kind of restoration, well that's just too bad. They were stupid. And our MEC was stupid for helping them think this. The more I read here, DPA just keeps looking better and better.
How many times do I have to say this. I am not trying to tie anything to our profitability. I told you what level of willingness to expect.
I cannot speak for the management team here at DAL, but if the entire playing field is close to equal our costs are fixed. Get UCAL and AMR to produce results that can give us 2 billion in contractual gains.
The goal as I see it is to do what I posted last night. Get the big guys really close in pay etc, and then have short duration contracts to pattern them up.
A restoration contract would put pilot costs at about 10% if the total revenue of the company. We cannot begin to take a stance on what to demand. We need to see what transpires in the next 12 months.