Originally Posted by Gearjerk (Post 1151143)

It's 5:02p Atlanta time!!

Where's the opener?:D

GJ

Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 1151149)

It should be pushed to the pilot pilots tonight. They met with management early this afternoon.

Originally Posted by Gearjerk (Post 1151143)

It's 5:02p Atlanta time!!

Where's the opener?:D

GJ

Originally Posted by Gearjerk (Post 1151150)

Thanks, I was actually being slightly facetious. :) If I understood correctly what Sailingfun wrote, it was a meeting to "ask for early negotiations", not necessarily to "exchange opener's".

GJ

Originally Posted by XtremeF150 (Post 1151169)

Wow it might go more senior than I thought. Currently showing 100 ppl with ATLDC9A as #1 choice. 52 as a #2 and 30 as a #3.
The overall number with ATL DC9A on their bid.....(drumroll) 334 :eek:

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 1150055)

You have to attempt to view it from a management standpoint. They have spent five years in a reeducation campaign with the other employees that Delta will only be able to pay industry standard wages. They are correct in their cost assumptions to an extent. This is perhaps the most brutal industry around on companies that let costs get out of line.
A pilot contract that is viewed as above the abstract they have created with the other employees will lead to big problems. After our 2001 contract they had to follow up with a 17 percent raise to the mechanics when things started to get ugly there.
I suspect they will be willing to put forth a contract with some impressive numbers in the out years. They will not put out anything near what I or most pilots expect in the short term. The collapse of talks at UAL and the 1113 action at AMR will leave the company thinking and serious raises for the pilots will put their pilot costs way to high and that they will have other costs with non union employee fallout. The package they put forth will be back loaded while the package we want and deserve will have to be front loaded. I see the gap between the two as far to big to be bridged before we go to the NBM. The NMB has made it clear we can expect a very long process if we go that route.
Again this is going to be a long difficult contract with a lot of choices that have to be made. Don't start spending raises now. They may not come for 5 years.

Originally Posted by gloopy (Post 1150766)

36-42 additional guaranteed days a year off for reserves is a pretty nice advantage. Most of the airline commutes and as reserve is correlated with juniority (not a straight line relationship but fairly similar) most who commute on reserve benefit very little with mid reserve stint long calls where they weren't used after the fact compared to an extra 36-42 days off a year, guaranteed.

And that's best case when we have fat categories. When we're lean on staffing and reserves are always flying, our current system is even worse.

For every guy sitting long call at home there is someone sitting long call at the hotel or pad and even if they aren't eventually used I doubt very much that *most* reserve pilots benefit more from the current system than having an extra 36-42 guaranteed days a year off.