That deserves a

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Well played, sir.

 

New hires already have a 2 year B scale and will soon have at least a 1 year freeze. That will significantly lower the cost of new hires going forward. There is also quite a bit of difference between years 1 and 12. As hundreds of 12's leave the pattern and are replaced with 1's that will go a long way to lowering average pilot costs.

Yes, all those hires will eventually be 12's one day, but as they mature up the scale there will be a steady, forever stream of 12's leaving and 1's coming in on the bottom to start over.

And that's if we stagnate forever. Imagine if we actually grew. You know, like all those other carriers that DL is providing the "Capacity Dicipline" for. If we could push the AF/KLM balance back to 50% (and actually keep it there, as well as including ALL their cargo into the mix as it should be) and reduce the Alaska code share abuse by even just 10 or 20% we could actually be in growth mode, which further lowers costs by creating and leveraging the juniority of costs across the entire operation at the same time revenue volume and opportunities are increasing.

And if we can stop the outsourcing of 255 DC-9-10 replacement jets we could have thousands of new hire pilots over the rest of this decade. It would suck to have to do that on a B scale of any sort (and I don't think that is warranted at all) but worst case a B scale and a longer airframe freeze for those new hires would mitigate a lot of those costs not to mention eliminating multipile layers of redundant management and guaranteed profits paid to other companies, some of which compete directly with us and are growing (and enjoying lower unit costs because of it) while we stagnate (and eat higher costs).

 

Wow ... even if 50% of this is true (and I'm not doubting you), this is good news.

 

I'm just happy that mgmt doesn't want a long, drawn-out fight. 40%, 70+ seaters, & code share discipline and I won't fight a bit.

 

I'm with Frank! This could be a breeze.

 

The last CA I flew with, who had DPA crew tags prominently displayed on his bags, said we are lucky if we get 5% up front, and 4% over the life of the contract. Hearing him say that made me vurp. I would share his other thoughts, but I think he might be on this forum so I will keep my mouth shut. However, his expectations and mine were vastly different.

 

I guess that ^^^^^ this tool broke the code on the rocking chair.

 

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Well then are we left to assume that DPA coulda woulda shoulda? If he is a DPA supporter what was his magic pill to solve our issues? DPA is not our union (maybe soon= good thing IMO DALPA is on notice) so when I have guys hand me stuff or tell me they are supporting DPA I ask what will you do different?

Often it is said by some.

"transparency". Well not a good thing to show the other side everything. But ok. More is good.

"get rid of FPL" Ok abuses to crop up. (I would expect that at some point with DPA) so how does that get us restoration? What is the plan for that? how will DPA get us a better contract than ALPA.?

"we have to start somewhere and DPA is the better choice" Ok maybe, maybe not. But bottom line it does not make a difference NOW we are already here. Openers DALPA do or die!

So it always comes back IMO that DPA is good to get DALPA moving and change some behaviors, but no one has been able to tell me how DPA is going to be any different at getting what we all want..... Just sayin........ Also askin....... What would DPA's opener be? Maybe I spent too much time at state college or somethun (it is like going to high school twice) but i am always willing to listen, that is why I signed the card!

 

...and the DPA guys claim DALPA is lowering our expectations. What is this guy doing if not trying to lower your expectations?