You are probably right, bad taste, I will edit. I have seen that act before though.

 

I've only got payscales going back to 1990, but there haven't been any "ups and downs" in Southwest pay rates. I don't know how to do the FtB magic posting of excel docs, but your tfp converted to hourly rates undercut Delta by a minimum of 15% in September 1991 (DAL$143.21/LUV $122.04) up to 37% in May 2004 (DAL $256/LUV $162). Our pay plunged 32.5% with LOA-46 in December 2004, and was reduced a further 14% in December 2005. LOA-46 was the first time your payrates equaled ours; prior to that your company had created a labor arbitrage where your pilots worked for less in wages but "made it up" in growth. Your CEO sent a cautionary letter in December now that the rest of the industry is below you in wage rates and the arbitrage is no longer working.

Your contract is amendable in September, no? Maybe you guys can finally raise the bar for others to pull up on rather than what you've done throughout your history.

 

Wow!.........another case of the Saturday night red-a$$ for Bacon?

 

Sounds like the widebodies are overstaffed and will suffer displacements one way or another. So isn't the DC-9 sticking around to absorb some of those displacements a good thing? Or would you prefer we displace all the way to the street.

 

Geez, T. Sometimes you really have problems with the nuances of a discussion. Maybe if you spent more time actually reading and thinking about what I say instead of trying to find some inconsistency to play "gotcha"... you'd be able to come up with more appropriate comments.

Let's talk specific numbers that I am advocating and see how it compares with your take on my post...

The average SWA Captain (including reserves) makes $234,000/year. The average Delta MD-88 Captain (assuming 80 hours per month by the time you include reserves) makes $161,280.

In order to restore our current pay rates to C2K+COLA (all other things being equal), we need a 72.5% increase in rate.

In order to match our current MD-88 pilot W2 pay to SWA pilot W2 pay, we need a 45.5% increase.

I have clearly stated on multiple occasions that I believe our objective should be C2K+COLA and that, being reasonable, I would be willing to accept as a minimum pay parity with the average SWA pilot. So my range is from 72.5% desired to 45.5% minimum acceptable. Are you with with me so far?

Now, let's imagine a situation in which SWA pilots were to get a big pay raise. Let's say they get a 20% pay raise. (I'm not saying this is what will happen... I'm just making a point.) That would put their average Captain at $280,800.

Now, let's imagine a situation in which we are able to negotiate pay parity with SWA's current pilot pay. That would put our average MD-88 Captain at $234,000. Like I said before, that would be minimally acceptable to me. If SWA pilots get a pay increase tomorrow, do I care that they are jumping ahead of that? Hell no! I'd be happy for them. If anything, it helps us to more easily obtain future increases to hopefully get us closer to that C2K+COLA I think we should be shooting for. And like I said before, I don't see it as a competition. I just want to be compensated appropriately, and certainly not compensated as if we were still in bankruptcy. The current level of SWA pay is what I have identified as minimally appropriate.

 

-Well put-

 

Whatever gets you through the day and enable you to justify how vastly under compensated you are to most every SWA pilot.

Classic belief disconfirmation.

Carl

 

You've no idea what you're talking about. SWAPA is very happy to be at the top of the heap. SWA flight ops management loves the idea of being able to pick the very best for new hires. Senior level SWA management would like to have the lower costs...but certainly not anyone in SWAPA that I know.

Carl

 

mmmmmkay. very mature response. Of course I shouldn't expect anything but that from you.

 

Yeah well THOSE days are over.. unless you count acquisition.