I hope this post and the others begin to show us one thing ladies and gentlemen: We have one of the worst contracts in the industry. From trip rigs to vacation to sick leave to reserve system to low reserve guarantee, etc. It just goes on and on how truly awful our contract actually is. Higher pay rates are unimportant when you see how much time you must spend away from your family to get the same pay as others with lower pay rates.

If we're ever going to see contract improvements, we ALL have to get away from the unfounded concept that Delta is the best. That DIED in 2003. Since then, our working conditions are an embarrassment and a drag on the industry. Let's all commit to fixing it.

Carl

 

Look on your time card. Scroll down towards the bottom, you should see something like RR Pay or some other abbreviation that looks like Reroute.

It's in the same spot where they list Green Slip pay, Assignment Pay, etc.

 

FIRST!

Ha ha, to quote this. I know I won't be the last.

A little introspection is always a good thing, is it not? As my preacher says, what's the common theme between you and your three divorces? You. So a look in the mirror is not a bad thing, especially if it helps you prove all 3 wives went crazy after marriage all on their own, or that you suck, either way, good to know.

So let's review and compare say Section 1, 3, 7, 11, 12, 14 and 23, can't hurt.

And this might ruffle some feathers, maybe even cause a N vs S debate again but I'm sure we can squash that pretty fast and stay on topic, no? But who knows where a little review will end up? Could be good.

So does our contract suck? Yes or No? If Yes, how much does it suck and what would the fix be?

I'd say Section 1 is pretty awful or awfully written or poorly enforced in comparison to say SWA or even RAH? The airline we should be kicking out of DCI. For instance:

How about something more like, if you want this deal Alaska then all of the LAX 737 flying is done by our 737s and all of the SEA, PDX and ANC done by yours. And we sure as hell will not have AS dominating LAX-SEA with 100% of the daily flights or flying international out of LAX. Fair? I think so.

Sorry, the only pilots whose flying I'm concerned with is our own, not our greater ALPA brethren.


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Have fun, going flying and since I'm flying ATL M88 B I'll be lucky to walk into the crew room without getting beat down again. Why they do this to ATL M88 B's I don't know. The hazing, the taking off the back of my wings and pining them back on to my chest, "squeal like a pig!" and everything else I've repressed, gosh it's rough. Last time I was there I saw Jesse in the fetal position in the corner warning everyone to bid off ATL M88 B, sage advice. Hope he made it.

 

Another big loss on "outsourced" flying, although this is own own subsidiary, so the losses are all ours.Now, lets see how much the Airport Board flips the property to the TSA for.

New on the HLN Channel, "flip this Airline Headquarters."

But this should be viewed for what it is, an ABSOLUTE STRATEGIC FAILURE by Delta management. They paid $2,500,000,000.00 for Comair, took a $600,000,000 strike, then got mad about that and decided to outsource their own subsidiary's work, destroying the value of their own asset. The real cost of this mismanagement is over 10 billion when the cost of the airplanes are included. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

How different would our contract be if we had $10 billion sitting in the bank?

For you senior guys that think "scope does not matter" what about the idiotic things our management does to take advantage of what we allow? Our airline works harder at trying to figure out how not to fly, than it does running a good operation. The result is the loss of billions.

 

Seems to me it can be a combination of a bunch of factors. First, our pilots are getting OLD! j/k It does seem that if it is costing money for all these sick outs and green slips it still isn't costing enough to justify positive space tickets for commuters.

 

As it was explianed to me, it is not the money involved in the sick time paid out. That is paid by a seperate account, and then reembursed by DAL each year. The number I heard for total sick time usage for the pilot group, is over 50 million a year. The real cost to the company, again as it was explained to me, was the cost of getting reserves to cover the rotation, and then not having reserves available for IROPS. As a result, those trips are getting covered by WS's and GS, which result in more money being spent than budgeted.

Of course, the response is who cares, but the reality is that DAL is totally bottom lime driven at this point in time. If exerting pressure of our group results in one less sick out per day, it will be deemed a success because, at the end of the day, it is less money they are paying out to anyone.

Whether or not we like the policy is really immaterial to a company that is trying to eek out as much profit as possible to appease Wall Street. Again, if you are sick you are sick. I use about 50 hrs a year, and I have small kids that bring every germ home. I call out sick when I am not safe to fly. I make that call and move on. If they want to call me, fine. I will answer the questions, but it will not change how I use my contractual sick time bank.

 

 

ACL,

It always cracks me up when managers get upset about their budgets for things like unscheduled engine removals and IROPS. They seem to forget these are unplanned events, and while I do applaud their attempt at smoothing out the budget, they are silly to get upset when the unplanned things don't go as planned.

The memo should go to the birds, the gods and whoever creates viruses.

Do we at least get credit for the DECREASE in SICK TIME when we stopped doing a double red eye to Manaus? If you were not sick before that trip, you were before you got home.

 

My opinion on this:

Like CPS and and Mesaba, DAL is shedding assets, not for a profit, but to get them off of their books. They are not worried about making money on these items, they are only worried about clearing them off the books. They are really cleaning house wrt to debt on the books. Pay attention to this.

The RFP is significant in my opinion, but there is something else going on. They are being very aggressive in dumping anything they can.

 

Well when the managers are getting pressure from the top, they do what managers do. It is trickle down economics at its finest.

As for your first comment, you are correct. They do have a lot of data to support a mathematical formula for "unplanned" repairs, and as a result of this formula, they have decided to pair down part stores, budgets, and staffing. As a result the reliability and on time metric are getting effected.

Reality is, over time the formula works, but not over a budget year, and that is where most compaines run in to issues when they build budgets with no wiggle room. As a result the varriances in a fiscal year's budget to actual need to be made up in other places. There are many ways to do this, but frankly, one of the quickest ways to rein in a budget to actual deficit is to take it out of a soft target. In most corporations that is labor. This is not unique to DAL or the airline industry.