Agreed. They can start their shopping spree with the pilots. No more "I'll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Ahhhh so they WILL fight for agency shop huh?

Hopefully an early out with retiree medical so some of these old f#$kers will finally leave! I tired of reserve already!

Or maybe just hand holding going into Sec 6

Can anyone recommend an AME on the north side of ATL?

Thanks.

How did SWA rates compare with Delta Express rates?

How did SWA W-2's compare with DAL W-2s during your example timeframe?

Not punching holes in what you wrote, there is more to the story though.

Damn! I was hoping to get back to Tbilisi this month. Thanks for the info, though!

BTW, your expectations for our next contract are pretty close to mine. I sure hope the MEC isn't setting their sights lower than that.

You make a good argument for an early abbreviated agreement outside of section 6 negotiations. It would be good to raise the bar as AA and UCAL are negotiating agreements.

I also think that management is all too aware of how much more smoothly the operation runs if we are on board. In the normal course of doing business, the pilots do a lot to grease the gears of Delta Air Lines. I bet Delta management can even put a rough dollar amount on this, based upon their experiences in 1996 and 2000.

I'm not saying we would start throwing sand in the gears-- that would be an illegal job action. Nor would it be any sort of concerted action, started on this or other web boards I'm just thinking that guys would be generally disgruntled, and would not go above and beyond to make the operation run well, if negotiations weren't going well.

I think he's referring to the honeybastian's comment about losing sleep over the fact that he didn't take enough away from the pilots in bankruptcy.

Carl

I think Sailing added the "sleepy" adjective because during the bankruptcy hearings on cutting pilot pay Ed Bastian testified something like "...he laid awake at night wondering if he asked for enough concessions from the pilots..."

His testimony is one reason why many pilots don't trust him...

Uniforms?
 

Just a bit of subject change from DPA v. ALPA.

I for one want the uniforms left alone. Delta decides, I work for Delta period. No childish act of defiance is going to change that and when I see guys wearing what they want, well it is just plain unprofessional. What other little temper tantrums are you playing with issues you disagree with? Not going to ride the van as scheduled because you get to the airport 1: 03 before show? I am sure the list can go on.... and on...

But why are we trying to relax the rules and lower standards? Why do we want to look like regional pilots?

Here is a novel idea. We expect all DCI carriers to conform to Delta image except pilots!!! F/A's look the same, A/C look the same. Facilities and interiors look the same. So why not make the flight crews look the same as mainline pilots? The DCI pilot walking through the terminal half dressed, white raybans on backwards around his neck, with his ipod stuck in his ears dragging around a back pack with his skate board hanging out is more detrimental to the professional image than looking cool. Paying passengers may want cheap tickets but they don't want cool when it comes to pilots. When the cool looking pilot walks by our customers who are watching him or her like a fish in a bowl, and boards a Delta painted jet, then we have all lost.....Delta Air lines pilots the most.

So why lower our standards??? Why not just enforce the standards we have to work under to the DCI carriers. We pay them, we own a majority of the air craft, we set the standards. Plain fact, if the DCI carrier wants the contract then these are the terms.

Before anyone says you cant impose these standards on another contract carrier, you are wrong. In my previous job, the regional I worked for just signed a contract with Midwest express out of MKE. Everybody was happy and the upgrades were going to come fast. When it was known that Midwest Express would require blazers and hats all year round, the pilots baulked! The pilots stated, "they cant make us do any of that, we dont work for them". No compliance? No contract, no flying, no upgrades.

Most professional looking group of pilots we ever had on property.


Important note here!! I really want all of the DCI carriers to have no Delta Airlines branding, colors etc on them at all. Paying passengers should know that those employees are not DAL and not what they paid for..... Since that horse has left the barn........