I know this would never happen because of gamesmanship and such, but it would be interesting if the NC just agreed to TA all the company's current positions and send it to the membership for vote. Gets around the NDA, let's the pilots see how much management thinks they are worth and see how much resolve is actually there by seeing what percentage votes yes or no.

Who knows, maybe the majority would vote yes and that's what DALPA's afraid of. Or, maybe it convinces some others that they might want to get behind DALPA's positions.

 

The question posed by sailingfun was to show our opener, not what the current table position is....

That being said, nothing can be learned from just seeing one side of anything. We need to see both sides before making any judgment calls on whose being reasonable. We both know that’s not gonna happen.

Denny

 

Here is a question for all.

Why did the company request to go to mediation at this particular point? Our contract calls for us to jointly apply for mediation in, what, less than 3 months? What’s their big hurry? I’m guessing this is more of a psychological play by the company to get pilots to question their union. Don’t fall for it.

Denny

 

I agree with you hypothesis Denny.

I think management was hoping that the Trip7s of the pilot group would freak out and immediately get a drive for recalls and union action started.

Quite frankly based of the blasé email from JG yesterday, I have a hard time believing that management is serious and they think they can squeak by with status quo and eventually give us a 10,3,3,3 raise with no changes elsewhere in the contract.

It’s an unacceptable way to do business on the behalf of Delta. While I don’t doubt that the ask from ALPA was astounding to them and perplexing in some regards (MCBP anyone?), our Union is doing their jobs and working to get the best for their members with their ask.

I don’t see the company’s actions up to this point as showing that they want the best for their pilots. This contract isn’t about pay rates anymore and that’s what the company fears most. It’s going to be a fun ride ahead.

 

I agree. Tunes is taking ALPA at face value. Their opener was a wishlist that was vague at best. A couple areas they dove in and attached numbers. Otherwise the opener was what ALPA does. Share some highlights with a little rah-rah at the end and tell you to wait for them to work their magic.

Early mediation or not, I am ready to wait for the right deal. I just hope that some of you evaluate what your time is worth when you get your notification to get your ass to work this summer and make it happen. Your time is more valuable to you than it is to them right now.

Someone will respond with their typical lawsuit argument right about now. If I tell my yard crew that next summer they aren’t only doing my yard, but they’re also doing my neighbors yard. Their pay will not be changed, but their afternoon nap and lunch break are gone.....increasing efficiency. I would expect that they’d not answer their phone when I called them on a Sunday to come in and plant a few new plants for me.

 

Opener, table position, ask .... any real data would be nice to have rather than knowing nothing specific for costs, percent of raise, vacation, other QOL items, etc.

That being said, I agree. Let’s see both sides. Neither side is reasonable. But seeing some general numbers from both sides will tell us a lot.

 

The opener and table positions in the money sections will be virtually the same since we presented them in December. I should however have said table positions.

 

The hurry was that if the next step at the table was a response to our openers delivered in Dec on the money sections. By filing now they delay having to put any of those positions out until after next summer. As I posted before I don’t think they want those positions reaching the pilot group before summer.

 

Why do you not ask to see management’s position, too?

 

it would have been foolish to publish this. What if we asked for a 10% pay raise and united gets a 14% pay raise....that would be shooting ourselves in the foot.

My personal opinion would be to go for united +$1 (so the egotistical delta pilots can still say they are the highest paid) and focus all the negotiating capital on work rules.