Not "anything" that they may want. It's only a concession if it's worse than what we currently have. We accepted concessions during bad times. We do NOT need to accept concessions during these good times. We only need to stay within a "reasonable" range of our industry peers to keep the NMB happy. Currently, we lag the industry in every single contractual section. We lead in none. This is the time for contractual gains. Period.

See above. This kind of wrongheaded stuff actually damages the pilot group.

If you're saying you're not willing to wait, you're saying you'll take whatever management offers.

Carl

 

Because management knows we're set up to make billions, and too much of it will then go to employees. Bastian stated he was losing sleep worrying that he didn't take enough from Delta pilots during BK. Can you even imagine how much sleep he's losing now? If we drag OUR feet, it will literally cost them a billion in profit sharing. That's leverage like we've never had before. If we had a union, we could use it.

If it's in the contract, it's negotiable. That's a fact of life.

Agreed.

Carl

 

Carl

 

 

Do you feel like your recommended style of negotiation led to much of a track record at your (and my) previous carrier?

 

I wanna play!

Fixed your post, added option D and E.

It's all academic(but fun), depending on the AA pilot vote and the DAL FA vote, I bet the company has a couple different options they'd like to pursue.

 

Would you agree there is no way we can sell our profit sharing without taking some kind of loss?

 

There is no way to answer that unless you can predict the future profits of the company. In 2000 the company was generating margins like today and everyone said the industry was fundamentally changed and would be profitable forever. By Spring of 2001 we were losing money fast and the industry had experienced its biggest revenue drop ever.
Long term over the next 15 years I suspect we would gain income by moving at risk income to fixed income. Shorter term over the next 3 to 5 years we probably would lose income. It depends on what future value is assigned to the profit sharing if a swap is made. By 2PM today we will have a better idea where the company may attempt to go with PS.

 

Bold is VERY important. It's the first step, and the IAM vote for DAL FA's will be next.
IF the AA pilots vote down their TA and keep the "industry average adjustment", expect RA to try and pump up our rates as much as possible with the raises we are GOING to get standalone AND via PS shifting, that way it will really turn the screws on AA. I also think the Co. would try and minimize gains in other areas and attempt to "Buy us off" with even more rate increases.

IF AA pilots pass the TA, I think we will see less drive by the CO to change PS, we will go ahead and have actual work rule improvements, and our rates will probably look like AA+x%.

To the other point, I think we would sell it for a profit actually. It's easy math to both sides, and if the MEC sees that it is being sold for a loss I know they would reject that. Heck, that wouldn't even make it past the new NC Chair!

Plus, I don't advocate getting rid of it completely (and neither does the Co.), I like the "upside protection" it provides (and the motivation for the whole company to perform well), that being said I'd rather have as much of it as possible, as soon as possible.

I'd also consider an estimated PS paid quarterly (say 3-4%) or monthly payout (1-2%) with the excess amount paid the following Feb. and keep the accrual formula the same.

I disagree with a "cap" or eliminating the 20% above XXX, that would be a bad idea.

 

Probably the smartest thing the company could have done in C2012 is increased the % of payout but then asked for a cap, instead of getting a decrease.

Then they would have had all of the benefits of PS but a cap to protect themselves if they became wildly profitable.