tsquare

Good play!

tsquare

Tickets will be available probably. You should go down there if you like college football. It's a fun stadium, Jumbotron notwithstanding.. Besides, you could be seeing this year's national champion in action.

tsquare

30% Raise followed by a Herman Cain (9/9/9)

DAL 88 Driver

DAL 88 Driver is on the "Cain Train!" And I agree, 9/9/9 would make a 30% partial pay restoration almost palatable.

Pineapple Guy

Hey, Hey, better check that thermostat; I agree with you! I'm on the Cain Train too!

Rogue24

Council 54 update:

Chairman’s Perspective

It is no surprise that we all are reeling from the events of the past 10 years in our industry. In my 25 years here at the airline, I have had a front-row seat to these events: joining an airline that just began a merger, a management team that hired FAs off the street and trained office workers as flight attendants when their contract was amendable, a normal Section 6 contract, a successful pay cut for stock swap to stave off of BK filing, a two-week management lockout to attain a contract, a one-year contract extension for pay raise after 9/11, a mechanic strike with a union termination, a frozen retirement, a bankruptcy, and another merger. In all of these events, no matter the differences we might have had as pilots, we always stood unified for the event that was in front of us. Unity in the task at hand, the Section 6 process, will once again bring us through to a new well deserved collective bargaining agreement.



I am aware of pilots’ apathy, some pilots’dissatisfaction with ALPA, frustration with all the hits to our profession, and the toll that it has taken on each of us and our families over the past few years. I ask you to stay focused. Get or keep engaged as we work toward pay and contract restoration during the Section 6 process. Please take the time to fill out the survey. This survey is your direct input to the process and will help determine the pay, benefits, and work rules that you will work under for years to come. If we were in a marathon race for the last 10 years, the finish line is just over the next hill. Take a deep breath and lets sprint together the last ¼ mile to the finish line, the reward—pay, benefits, and work rule improvements. In unity, we will succeed in this task as well.



Vice Chairman’s Perspective

After spending the last six days in the crew room and talking to almost 100 fellow pilots, let me attempt to address the concerns and questions that were expressed during my time in the lounge. Although this will be my second Section 6 contract as a pilot (the first as an elected rep), some pilots expressed the opinion that they lacked the information they needed to complete the survey. Over the last year, the previous Seattle reps and I coauthored three articles: Scope, Pay Rates (North by Southwest) and Money, and Taking Stock of Compensation. The goal of these articles was to generate discussion and debate within the pilot group. There are many new pilots in Seattle and Council 54, so this is a good opportunity for a review as additional information you seek in completing your surveys.



Scope: A historical overview of industry growth and the rise of regional carriers. Economic market forces have made the 50-seat jet destined for phase out. Do pilots want to spend negotiating capitol on a market segment that is economically dead? The current PWA has a total 255 plane limit on 70–76-seat RJs based on a fleet of 767 mainline aircraft. An area of management interest could be the 76–120 seat market. Scope is not all about RJs. It also pertains to who flies the larger aircraft in our joint ventures (JV) and code shares. These are the areas of increasing threat to the careers of Delta pilots. Do you care if little or no attention is paid in these areas of the contract? ALL of us will suffer more stagnation if we do not receive our fair share of the JVs that are in fact virtual mergers if not for U.S. laws on airline ownership. We have been vocal and vigilant about the threats to our jobs that cabotage would bring. Should Delta pilots continue to review and provide input to JV agreements? Pilots have the power and control to make these areas priorities in the contract survey. What’s good for Delta the corporation might not be good for Delta pilots. What do you think?



Pay Rates: Through mergers, airlines are getting control of pricing instead of chasing market share. Capacity control is being used to control pricing, which has resulted in little or no organic growth. Successful airline models have been created (FedEx, UPS, and Southwest) that have been able to generate consistent profits, even in bad economic times. Delta has also created a successful business model as result of our merger and the resultant $2 billion in synergies. In 2010, despite high oil prices and a recessionary environment, Delta made a healthy profit and paid down debt. In 2011, although Delta is set to make a smaller profit, Delta still plans to significantly pay down debt. The article also compared the Southwest 737 and the equivalent Delta aircraft, the MD-88. Just to bring the Delta MD-88 to the Southwest 737 requires an increase of 31.47 percent. Since that article has been published, our management has told Wall Street that the purchase of AirTran has removed a lower-cost competitor and replaced it with a higher-cost one—Southwest. Based on management’s comment, this statement is more valid now than when it was first published on February 8, 2011 . . . but what do you think? Tell the MEC what you think—take the survey!



Money: This article highlighted how pilots are having their hard-earned dollars nickled and dimed away to pay health insurance copays and premiums (that were once free) and paying for our own short-term disability (DPMA). Look at the deductible portions on your paycheck to see how many hundreds if not thousands of dollars we pay for things that were of little or no cost before 9/11/01. Equity (stock), as a tool to get the total, take-home compensation we deserve, was also brought up. The stock that each pilot received from the merger (on average approximately 4,000 shares a pilot) was available for each pilot to decide when he or she wanted to sell it. The issue price for that stock was $4.38 a share and went as high as $14.94. Extrapolating the hourly rate this equity would convert to based on 1,000 hours a year flown is illustrated in the table below. If you sold the stock at any of these points on the table below, you can see a converted hourly equivalent rate. Even if you still hold the stock when you acquired it at the $4.38 a share price (top row), the current value to you is an equivalent $5.84 an hour now at the original issue price assuming no increase in stock price. Next year it would drop to $4.38 a share; however, you were paid all up front in year one and you, not the Negotiating Committee, made the decision (hold or sell) that was right for you. You were able to use the time value of money and your personal risk vs. reward to make a choice, your choice, on what you needed or wanted to do. Pilots want to be in control.


Delta Stock Shares


Issue Price


Sale Price


Est. Proceed


Hourly Rate Year 1


Year 2


Year 3


Year 4

4000


$4.38


$4.38


$17,520


$17.52


$8.76


$5.84


$4.38

4000


$4.38


$7.50


$30,000


$30.00


$15.00


$10.00


$7.50

4000


$4.38


$10.00


$40,000


$40.00


$20.00


$13.33


$10.00

4000


$4.38


$12.00


$48,000


$40.00


$24.00


$16.00


$12.00

4000


$4.38


$14.94


$59,760


$59.76


$29.88


$19.92


$14.94




Another question is: “does this type of up front equity have a place in the way we are compensated?” The new chairman of United/Continental Holding has made this statement: “I think we’re at the cusp of having an airline business in the United States that actually makes money (and) makes it consistently, sustainably, sufficiently.” Just what value would you place on stock based on the statement above? What do you think the investment community would think of an airline business model (and its stock) that consistently makes money? Based on the recent contracts negotiated in the auto industry, at risk compensation is more likely to be part of our compensation mix as well. Wouldn’t equity, as opposed to profit sharing, be a better option that gives you the control that you want? Either way, tell the MEC via the survey! The MEC will never know what you want if you fail to fill out the contract survey. It will not matter how much or how little information you have been given if you choose not to use it.


Secretary/Treasurer’s Perspective

Constructive Engagement vs. Section 6

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have the best mix of previous “north” and “south” pilots in all of the bases at Delta Air Lines, so this will be a mix of historic perspective and historic education. I have been a part of the present MEC for less than a year but have been involved in three full-blown Section 6 eras in my 22 years as an ALPA pilot and have the distinct privilege of seeing one through the entire TA/Rejection/Cooling -off/Strike scenario. I sincerely think we are in a position to make real gains for the next contract in spite of the doom and gloom we have all heard regarding our economy and the airline industry as a whole. But, we need to make the tough decisions and we need to rally as a pilot group and as an MEC.



Some of us on the present MEC have had a much longer relationship with many on the management team than others and I would encourage those who do not have the same historical perspective to keep an open mind and realize that the upcoming negotiations are not going to be a warm gathering of equals looking for common ground for the benefit of all our futures. The upcoming negotiations will be purely a tug-of-war involving the management team trying to minimize any gains within our contract, especially monetary gains. Don’t kid yourselves; the management team and company negotiators will not be our friend for the next two to three years (or longer)! This same company leadership who routinely attends our MEC meetings and thanks us for our hard work and dedication to “getting the mission done” will soon become the team who dictates to the company negotiators how little they should show their appreciation and how little we are worth to the company bottom line. The whole concept of Section 6 negotiations involves fighting for what you consider important to us (the pilots) and challenging those whose sole reason for being in the room is to keep you from getting what you want. Management will try to set the tone but we are not required to follow along.



This whole strategy (on our part and theirs) precludes the continued use of the philosophy of “constructive engagement” that seems to be the cornerstone of how the past and present MEC deals with our management. It is time that we revert to an MEC whose sole purpose is to force management to abide by the written contract and not allow for the seemingly daily lapses that have to be caught, and then fixed, by our committee structure and our MEC administration. Even without the contentious negotiation before us, our management has had a great advantage in respect to the, nearly daily, “mistakes” and “oversights” that are routinely handled by our Contract Administration Committee and Scheduling Committee without the inclusion of grievances, arbitrators, or judges. This cozy relationship cannot continue during a time that includes such important and hard negotiations that will affect all of our lives over the next 3, 5, 10 years, and beyond. I have great regard for the relationship that the MEC has had with management that helped us make improvements to our PWA (which also increased the efficiency of the management of our airline) like the SOT and other incremental changes, but this philosophy must be suspended. This relationship must come to an end until we have achieved a new improved contract.



This new philosophy must involve every one of us! All the pilots of Delta Air Lines need to start paying attention and be sure that we are all playing by the rules and not letting those rules be bent or ignored. The MEC must make a conscious decision to let management know that we are serious about improvements to our PWA and that we will take the negotiations to the ends that may be required in order to reach the overall contract we all deserve. Our collective investments kept both Delta and Northwest Airlines solvent and put them in the position to create a historic merger. We deserve to be paid back as the pilots that made it happen when we made huge monetary and lifestyle sacrifices. We MUST come together as a group that will require management to step up and be held to the same standards that we, the pilots, are held to on a daily, hourly and minute-by-minute basis.



Unfortunately, it is a fact that the Railway Labor Act heavily favors management and the preclusion of a labor group being released to “self-help.” The only real leverage we have is our collective will and our adherence to professionally doing our jobs without letting our management take advantage of our “constructive engagement.”
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Sorry formatting sucks, I cannot fix it.

DeadHead

FWIW try clicking on the underscore where the X is usually to indicate a schedule is complete. Was able to pull up 88 fo lines in NYC.

DAL 88 Driver

Sounds like it's time for this picture again...

DAL 88 Driver

That percentage is inaccurate (too low). Our 12 year Captain rate for the MD-88 in 2012 (current contract) is $167.68. At an average of 80 hours, that results in a W2 income of $160,972.80. The average SWA Captain W2 is over $230,000. Just to bring our MD-88 Captain (at 80 hours per month) up to an even $230K would require a 43% increase. For those of you in Rio Linda/Herndon, 43% is quite a bit more than 31.47%.

buzzpat

Some of the other B's are out. But not all.