Very well said.
Chuck

I get the feeling that is what our union is preparing us for. The company will certainly argue that the passage of time (and the JCBA) constitute a tacit acceptance of that position on our part. Accepting marginal pay and work rule improvements "over the life of a contract" will certainly reset the baseline.

I understand and agree with the ALPA stance on not publicizing our survey results and not publicizing our negotiating priorities. I can even live with not knowing what the opener is.

However, after the last two road shows I went to where I heard TO and other union guys be very critical of the APA, I get the feeling that they are of the opinion that aiming lower to get something now is better than negotiating for an extended period of time for (larger) gains they don't feel are achievable.

I think you're right regarding mergers, however when the majority of these groups are younger and have better relative seniority vs. Delta, we bottom dwellers will stagnate. The retirements won't help most of us because we will retire before them. The ironic part is Alaska pilots have had their seniority inflated due in part to its relationship with Delta, to the detriment of our pilot group. This same boost to their seniority would be used against us in the SLI. I do agree, I would rather have it in-house via merger vs. outsourced. My first choice is to reign in scope with this contract. Many are benefiting from the great outsourcing our contract allows except the mainline Delta pilot. No amount of money from RA will get a yes vote out of me unless scope is significantly reigned in. Scope is the gift that keeps on giving to MGT and other pilot groups, but has been the consistent boot in my arse! This worst part is we are only to blame.

Mine was 35% FY + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8.

We've seen those get what you can now quotes here:

The problem with this argument of take something now whether than fight it out to later, APA style, is that it requires perfect knowledge of what could have happened later and more importantly, what is happening right now.

So if I negotiate for a car and the sticker is $18,500. What is attainable is paying, $18,500. If I fought it out and played the game right and leverage myself I might walk out with $16,000. Dealer may be laughing because he paid $10K for the car. Or he may have paid $16K and just wanted it off the lot.

How do you know? You don't, but you sure won't win if you start at $19,500.

Contract survey just extended 72 hours. Apparently a lot of guys decided to get serious about it over the weekend. Pilots.....sheesh. ;)

That's pathetic. Why should we extend it because a guy can't find the time during the window it was open? Obviously, he doesn't care enough to provide input in a timely manner - then he shouldn't get to.

I agree PG. I mean, how many of us did it multiple times just to get it right? I think I had at least 8 iterations.

2012 flying .. Delta shrinking
 

While management touts the "success" of our code share and Joint Ventures, here are the numbers. Alaska is growing. Delta is shrinking twice as fast as other airlines and faster than our pilots are retiring:


To put this in perspective, we are shrinking even faster than United, who is going through their post merger route rationalization. We are the fastest shrinking airline in the United States and possibly the World.

Boyd tends to crunch numbers inclusive of "brand" flying done by DCI carriers. I have no doubt that our numbers are effected by the retirement of a mass of 50 seaters. Still, management does not get off the hook. We need to start reminding them when they say "there is no 100 seat platform" we need to send that lie down in flames by asking how much they paid for 255 100 seat jets with 76 seats installed in them.

My min level was 70% with 7% year over year. Just doing md88 to southwest conversion.