Anyone care to speculate WHEN an A/E would be run/published to accommodate this reality? Or, when the May/June A/E will be out???

 

FTB,

OK, I know this is going to be unpopular, but fighting wars is hard work.

The only viable strategy is to ignore the airplane, focus on the pilots and make it a unity issue. The public, courts and governments get the idea that unions need to unity workers. There is public approval for reducing outsourcing.

If we try to pick and choose just the largest (and newest) we would be specifically targeting the only profitable part of the operation, the part the management would vigorously defend and expose our economic interests for what they are.

Unity is always a winning strategy for a union. We've got much better legal and PR tools available for our use if we attack this through efforts to bring together our union and pilots who perform our flying.

Compass was the low hanging fruit ... and they had the airplanes which most violate the intent of our scope. Compass was a bankruptcy concession and we made it permanent. Compass was the place to start. Frankly, I believe the divestiture vote was intended to blow our chances at scope restoration to smithereens.

Unity is a litmus test. Vote against it and you have no role in a union, JMHO.

 

Yes he can. Haven't you ever seen one of his presentations (they are quite good, even if I disagree with his conclusions).

His presentation is that Delta Air Lines is performing well and that Delta Air Lines Pilots are near the top of their peer group in pay & working conditions (all true & he does deserve much credit for all of these successes). Then he dives into the idea that small jets can not be operated at mainline profitably. This concludes with when Delta makes money we make money. We can do better negotiating with a profitable company.

He touts the APA as foolish and an example of doing everything wrong.

When sitting through his presentation it was obvious that he relied on bankruptcy economic analysis to determine "small jets can not be operated profitably at mainline." In subsequent presentations he removed the obvious references to facts no longer in existence (like differences in ground handling costs) but the conclusion remained the same.

A pilot posted the presentation summary under the title "Outsourcing is Good." The insiders jumped on his head. But, the audience member got it right. Moak's economics based argument is that outsourcing helps the company make money, which benefits Delta pilots.

This of course triggered my response, where's Moak getting his numbers? Folks learned without Moak's approval no one could run an economic analysis and Moak was not giving the command to do that work. There are varying after action reports, but at the time of the vote everyone was unanimous that we divested Compass without running the numbers.

 

He doesn't have to sell anything in his position, "He's got his..."

He doesnt have to do anything. He did however change the "line in the sand" without memrat while here.

 

 

Following on the heels of our RAH surrender, its a disturbing trend we have going here when the ALPA guys are so ready to capitulate on scope issues and claim there's nothing we can legally do about outsourcing and subcontracting.

The notion that we can't force management to bargain about scope and job security because its a "permissive" topic and we can never strike over those issues is just plain dangerous. Its even more loony than saying that Republic Air is not an air carrier.

Here's the Supreme Court on the issue:

The type of "contracting out" involved in this case -- the replacement of employees in the existing bargaining unit with those of an independent contractor to do the same work under similar conditions of employment -- is a statutory subject of collective bargaining under § 8(d) of the Act.

We agree with the Court of Appeals that, on the facts of this case, the "contracting out" of the work previously performed by members of an existing bargaining unit is a subject about which the National Labor Relations Act requires employers and the representatives of their employees to bargain collectively.

http://supreme.justia.com/us/379/203/case.html

 

Personally I think the 76 seat ship has sailed. I doubt if we (mainline DL) will ever be able to 'recapture' that flying. There is a limit per our contract to how many 76 seat RJ's can exist. So let's focus on defending that limit, and let's turn our attention to the NEXT threat, the much fabled 100 seater.

If we hold the line on 76 seats for DCC's, then obviously any 100 seater would have to be flown by mainline pilots. As much as many of you hate to admit it, DALPA was right when they said the 36 and 50 seat RJ's would eventually dissapear, over congestion and higher fuel prices helped. So where's the next logical step? 100 seater replaces 76. OK, Who flys it?

If the RJ guys want mainline jobs, they should be supporting mainline scope. If instead they want to spend the rest of their careers flying 76 seaters at DCC pay/benefits, then by all means, sue DALPA over our scope clause, if/when the 100 seater comes along.

And for you mainline guys, here's a no-kidding question that is sure to come up over the 100 seater, if/when it ever shows up. How much of a pay raise would it take for you to give away the 100 seater to the DCC's? If RA offered you a 30% pay raise tomorrow, and put some limit on the total number of 100 seaters allowed, would you let it go to the DCC's?

That is exactly the tactic used to get to where we are today, first it was the 50 seaters, then 76, next step, 100.

So, what's your selling point? 30% raise? 50%? 100%? Here's mine, I want a 100% raise for a couple years, (to get my last kid through college) and my $1.4 Million DB money returned to my 401K, and then I'll retire 10 years early, you can have my 777 left seat.

BTW, in all the previous contracts, all of which allowed more relaxation of our scope, I voted no... Now it's your turn.

 

nuff said.

 

Sorry, not true. Assuming you are referring to the 76 seat line, that was conceded in LOA 51, which passed MEMRAT.

 

Correct. I remember it well. The sales pitch was "RJs are saving Delta".