Originally Posted by
jetnwa
Just for clarification, you do know there was a "Flex Up" portion to the 10% pay increase for the 2003 NWA contract while guys were on the street?
No there wasn't. There was NO flex up provision in the contract extension deal that gave NWA pilots the 10% raise. The deal you refer to came several months later, when NWA approached the pilots for more military charters to SW Asia. That was followed a year later with the "Freighter LOA". Both of those had staffing implications. Neither was part of the pay raise deal.
Separate issues. Separate times.
Originally Posted by
jetnwa
It may have been a law of unintended consequences by the union but NWA had recalled half the furloughed pilots and was in the process of a total recall as per my phone calls with the head of NWA HR .."we are trying to get all of the furloughed pilots back ASAP!". Maybe the union had the same knowledge as well, I don't know. Maybe it was all "smoke and mirrors" from the company?
Both the company and the union were making decisions based on what was happening at the time. After 9/11, Jeff Carlson announced 850 furloughs. Then he announced only 600. A year later it was increased. A year after that the numbers changed monthly as the company reacted to decisions made at other airlines that were filing bankruptcy and making irrational marketing moves.
Compare it to NWA in the 70's, when there were annual furloughs, pilots who spent 9 years sideways on the 727, and at least 4 pilot strikes. If you've worked in this industry more than 5 years, you know plans changes...a lot.
Originally Posted by
jetnwa
Well, I do know this, once the new contract passed the recalls were immediately STOPPED. After the new contract was implemented the recalled guys were re-furloughed. Coincidence? Again, who knows?
The NWA pilots ratified only one contract in the last decade. The JCBA in 2008. The "contract" you refer to was one of 3 other interim deals that were signed. One, the 10% pay raise, passed by 87%.
Originally Posted by
jetnwa
Some of these two time furloughed guys really paid a tough price.
Yes they did. As tough as being furloughed 5 times in 7 years? Some NWA pilots experienced that, yet still supported ALPA. They stuck together and struck again for a better contract.
Would Caplinger have struck after multiple furloughs? We don't know. He was hired more than a year after the NWA strike.
Originally Posted by
jetnwa
I can see why they are upset but don't think that is the core reason for the DPA drive. Other factors, like DAL pilots only being concerned for DAL pilots, may be a bigger reason.
Then why the statements on the DPA site regarding joining CAPA, and lobbying for the profession? If the "core" is to focus on only Delta pilots...why bother with CAPA, or anything related to the profession?
What does CAPA do for Delta pilots? Why worry about attacks on the profession that don't target Delta pilots specifically?
Originally Posted by
jetnwa
This was from my perspective and others on the property may have been dealing with a different one. Again, I don't think that was the intent of the union. I have no malice to them esp the fact they paid for our COBRA premiums while we were on the street.
But Carl says ALPA has never been successful! Are you suggesting ALPA helped members in 1992 at NWA, then in 2002 and beyond at both NWA and DAL with the COBRA program?
Originally Posted by
jetnwa
I just wanted to clarify your NWA history of events. Things don't always seem as they appear.
So I've learned.