notEnuf

Once? We tried that early thing once, and we ended up going later because of a NO vote. If you are referring to 2012, 6 months and SJS and bankruptcy recovery was the motivation post merger. That deal was not earth shattering but both N and S wanted to harvest the successful merger. Management's objective is to always go beyond the amendable date to take full advantage of the RLA. The pressure builds as we exceed the artificial deadline and we perceive ourselves losing ground. The reality is that we regularly lock in 4 years of pay raises for the foreseeable future and agree not address it again regardless of the economic realities of inflation or any other current factors. A career is 25+ years and the operation is perpetual with new people coming in and retirements happening so we are doing ourselves a huge disservice by not insisting on a provision to maintain wage integrity during the negotiation, however long it takes. Unless and until the "need" of the company is so urgent that it's survival is in peril, then a concessionary deal with wage decreases may be struck at any time, there is no reciprocal mechanism for wage increases. This is ridiculously short sighted and relies on the "good faith" of the counter party who has shown time again they are unreliable and choose to violate the agreement.

The only way to solve this is to have an escalator for beyond amendable date wages. The only way they sign an early deal is benchmark labor costs going into what they see as profitable times. They have the bookings, plans, and pricing data. This is why profit sharing tied to a percentage value is such a sacrosanct part of the PWA. It is an RLA and inflation hedge. Our 3.B.4. language was watered down because of this powerful hedge. Your pay bump comes in the form of profit sharing (though it is not adequate, it is the only hedge) when they stall due to good economics and high expectations. The early and good deal is a unicorn. It's one or the other. And until this is in place retro should never be in question. Negotiating away unused or undervalued escalators like 3.B.4. and "no fly" new equipment has been more detrital to wages than anything. There is a reason "me toos" have become the norm. If you vote yes for a TA without an escalator you are setting your wages until retirement and hoping for more some day. There is no timeline for a new agreement and definitely no deadline, we need to recognize reality.

sailingfun

I am a advocate of short on time contracts. Compounding and dragging your peers up with you is the only way to beat the RLA. 2.75% a year however was never going to fly with the pilot group or me. The company knew contract 2019 was going to be expensive. They knew they were going to need to open the check book. They were however stunned by our 3 billion open on a 5.5 billion contract. Just as 2.75% a year would never fly with the pilot group 3 billion was never going to fly with the company.

ebl14

Didn't envoy and piedmont just get 48%?

sailingfun

They did, the company had a choice, pay it or shutdown. Delta is flooded with applicants.

DWC CAP10 USAF

For someone who loves to reference what the FOM states or what the company posted on DLNet, you sure seem to be out to lunch on this topic. Let me highlight a few sections for your reading pleasure.

FOM Chapter 13 DEADHEAD/COMPANY BUSINESS TRAVEL13.1.2.1 General: states the pilot has to add their name to the PNR

13.1.2.1.1 To Assign a Name: steps you through how to do it in travelnet

13.2.5 Reservations: says to use icrew and not travelnet

13.2.5.1 Domestic and Non-Ocean Crossing

13.2.5.2 Ocean Crossing

Spoiler Alert: no where in those sections does it say you just walk up to the GA and make her do the listing for you.

ebl14

Thats the bottom line, isn’t it? Until the operation is threatened by a strike or inability to fly the schedule we will only see lackluster offers from the company.

sailingfun

I have walked up many times. I guess I don’t see the big issue however in adding your name to the booking the company created. Lugging a 50lb flight kit I considered a issue. Adding my name to a booking is pretty far down in the noise for me, “Do we have to work every Thursday.”

TegridyFarms

Sailing doesn’t care. He just shoots Ed a text and has a private jet sent for him. That’s how it works in his world.

Hossharris

delta has minority report style science project personalized information coupled with directional billboards to beam pertinent information directly at targeted individuals

but we have to manually add our name to a deadhead reservation …

it’s just another overt indicator of where we stand in the company’s priorities.

DALFA

100% correct. The company has absolutely no incentive to negotiate a quick and fair contract. There's absolutely zero downside for them to just stall for a few years until the NMB gets fed up and then they'll throw a bone.

It has very little to do with ALPA. It has everything to do with what you just said.

The only other option is for employees to buy up a hefty percentage of DAL stock and put the BoD on notice. DAL market cap is at $19 billion. About $7-8 billion should do the trick. That's about $450k per pilot.