Airline Pilot Central Forums - Details on Delta TA

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Quote:

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1917927)

From everyone's favorite council, C44:

June*2, 2015

Work Rules

Our overall quality of life at Delta Air Lines is determined in large part by our work rules. Next to pay, work rules are a top issue for Delta pilots, and the tentative agreement we have before us contains significant changes that will directly affect our quality of life.

This tentative agreement improves two major quality of life issues for Atlanta pilots: reroute and trip mix. We acknowledge that some compromise was required in order to obtain the improved work rules for all pilots, first officers and captains alike, specifically with regard to OE rotation awards for first officers. Below we will discuss some of the major changes, and offer a scorecard for the work rule changes.

Reroute:C44 pilots have let us know loud and clear that reroutes often unfairly compromise their seniority, and adversely affect their quality of life. Under our current language, Delta does not pay a pilot premium pay for “circumstances beyond the company’s control,” and mechanical issues were among a list of examples of these circumstances. This TA eliminates the mechanical exception to a premium pay award. In summary, only items such as weather or airport closures will be considered a circumstance of which the company has no control going forward.

Additionally, if our pilots ratify this tentative agreement, a rerouted rotation must end no later than 4 hours after its originally scheduled return or the company must pay the affected pilot premium pay for the extended duty period. Under the present PWA the company must only return you within 4 hours after the rotation was originally scheduled to end, or on the same calendar day, whichever is later. For international rotations the trigger for premium pay has moved from 30 hours to 25 hours.

These improvements, along with the MEC Grievance 14-13 settlement regarding violations of Section 23 L.4, which reads: "Note: An uncovered flight segment(s) will be placed in open time if, in doing so, the resulting rotation reports 14 or more hours from the time the flight segment(s) first became uncovered,”result in significantly tighter reroute language, which would trigger premium pay for rerouted pilots, and theoretically drive a reduction in reroutes. This is the added benefit, and the reason work rules are in place to begin with. The extra money involved drives the company to look for solutions other than pilot reroutes to solve scheduling problems. Delta’s scheduling software seeks the low-cost solution, which might be a green slip, white slip, yellow slip or reserve call out.

Rotation Construction and Trip Mix: Another major issue for C44 pilots is the seasonal loss of 1, 2, and 3-day trips as a result of Delta’s need to reduce credit time in order to stay within TLV constraints. TLV constraints are pushed to the limit due to increased flying and tighter staffing. Additionally, FAR 117 compliance has led to reports of an overall deterioration in the quality of rotations during pre-month bidding.

Under our current contract Delta’s Crew Resources and Scheduling department has often disregarded the Rotation Construction Committee’s recommended inputs to improve the trip mix and quality of the rotations.**Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) 15-02 is a one-year test program included in this tentative agreement that gives the Rotation Construction Committee the necessary credit time and authority to build better quality rotations of various lengths for all pilots during pre-month bidding by raising the TLV to 81 (from 80). The improved quality and variety of the rotations in the bid package for all captains and first officers was a major goal for C44 pilots as expressed in a C44 resolution. Even with a TLV of 81 hours, we remain well below other airlines in this parameter.

This MOU is a test. Should the increase in TLV not provide the needed trip mix and quality, the entire MOU may be rescinded or not extended by ALPA, which would reduce the TLV once again to 80.

Scheduling Flexibility: Pilots also expressed a desire to have the ability to adjust their schedules to their own personal needs. Individual Vacation Days (IVDs) and an increased ability to swap and drop rotations due to the new “reserves required” formula in open time will give Delta pilots much greater control and ability to adjust their monthly schedule to fit their personal needs. Additionally, the improved transparency in the vacation move-up process, contained in this tentative agreement, will help Delta pilots manage their vacation weeks more effectively.

Rotations Withheld from PBS Award When Designated for OE/TOE: A compromise was the OE trip removal. Up to 75% of the identified OE trips for an individual category can be withheld from first officers in PBS. Trips will first be identified based on the specific hours needed in that category, and first officers will bid in seniority order until 25% of the trips are “bid.” At that point the remaining 75% of identified trips will be withheld for OE training. While we fully acknowledge the effect it will have on some first officers, we also took measures to limit and mitigate the impact, and extracted as much value as possible to achieve your goals for C2015. Here are a few more facts to consider:

OE trips account for less than 2% of first officer trips.

Narrowbody trips are impacted the most. The greatest number of OE rotations are scheduled in the 717 category, where the seniority movement is the most rapid, lessening the impact of the trip pulls upon seniority. For example, while the NYC 717 category will have 5-8% OE trips, the first officer sitting at 50% in that category was hired in 2015.

LCA will have no reduction in their ability to manipulate their schedules; they can still drop, pick up, and swap trips as they do under the current contract.

Trips are specific to the pilot’s base and category; an OE originating in ATL for a pilot based in NYC would still result in the company having to buy off the first officer who was awarded the rotation in ATL.
Not all Line Check Airmen are at the top of their categories with respect to seniority, and the net effect is not likely to be a linear push-down, but a completely different outcome as pilots adapt their behavior and bidding strategies to the new system.

Since some pilots who would have been bought off will now fly something else, the net result*could*be a few more pilots on reserve.

Below is an example of the possible impact on the Atlanta categories using 2014 OE data and based on June 2015 bid awards. The “New Reserve” column reflects the possible net effect:

http://rs938.pbsrc.com/albums/ad230/...0?t=1435504144

Since no one has any confidence, trust or respect left for the regime, I doubt any one will waste their time looking at this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by texavia (Post 1917934)

Since no one has any confidence, trust or respect left for the regime, I doubt any one will waste their time looking at this.

Well, standb, more to post.

Note that on the A330 where first officers are not released via 23 G.5 on a 3-man crew, there would be no LCA trips withheld.

*http://rs938.pbsrc.com/albums/ad230/...0?t=1435506303

They say one picture is worth a thousand words.* Below is the effect across all categories.* The red bands indicate the possible number of additional reserves:*

Conclusion:*Any negotiation involves compromise, and your Council 44 Officers acknowledge that some compromise was needed to achieve the gains in this agreement.* The gains affect all pilots on the seniority list regardless of seat position. Specifically, improved reroute language, rotation construction and trip mix were top priorities for the Atlanta pilots.* The MOU will give the Rotation Construction Committee the authority to build higher quality and a better variety of rotations. Additionally, Individual Vacation Days (IVDs) were established allowing a Delta pilot to take vacation days at other times by using a portion of a vacation week when it would be most convenient, any month of the year.* Taken as a whole, as we outline in the scorecard below, the gains for all Delta pilots greatly outweigh the quids required to achieve them.* Ultimately, which set of work rules you prefer will be your choice to make.*

*

What is apparent from the c44 missive is apparently there was no stastical weighting to addressing the issues they heard 'loud and clear' from the pilots in atl.

It is simply unbelievable that the 'improvements' they cite were obtained in the process of 'compromise'......would have appeared on anymore than an insignificant number of survey inputs.

I mean....really? Im betting nearly 100% answered 'don't f-wth the PS and get higher pay rates. How many here believe items like reroute issues were even on the typical pilots radar screen......

and how many believe these issue would have even been cited at all by ANY pilot....if the survey had disclosed any wish list involving things like rr issues would in the process of 'compromise' only be improved at the cost of sick leave, lca schedule trip pulls, reduction in ps, and a hourly pay increase we pretty much pay for out of existing compensation.

to offer such a narrative...as if it were logical and reasonable...they really must believe the typical line pilot is a fool who will swallow anything they publish.

Council 44 Vice Chairman’s Perspective

Over the past several months and certainly the past several weeks I have heard from many of you. As you might imagine the reaction to our tentative agreement is as varied as our pilot group. Some pilots are angry and others are quite pleased. That leaves the majority of us somewhere in between.

Much has been said about the shortcomings of the tentative agreement. But there are also a lot of meaningful improvements to our contract.

There are ten pages of Power Point slides in the negotiators’ overview. These slides list, in bullet point fashion, the gains for each party. The company’s gains end on page one. The next nine pages list only the gains for us. Some of these items have been on our wish list for a very long time. These are real quality of life improvements. Reroute for example is fixed. We also have RCC language that will actually allow the RCC to improve trip mix. You will have better control of your schedule due to adjustments in the reserve required formula, and the use of individual vacation days. Hopefully you won’t need to avail yourself of the disability improvements. But if you are one of those that end up on disability, they are very real.

The pay raise is less than most of us wanted. However, I asked our professional negotiators (combined 80+ years of airline negotiating experience) and our committee if they were certain that nothing was left on the table. They are all, to a man, absolutely convinced that there is no more value available from Delta Air Lines. We are, in my opinion and theirs, in a take it or leave it scenario.

I look at senior management’s history. During the merger, the framework for a JCBA, along with a SLI and Transition Agreement was nearly complete, we had agreed upon wages and DC contributions for NWA pilots, among other things. However we became hung up on the seniority list integration in March. In June, the NWA MEC re-engaged, and we all got $250 million per year less than the initial framework. When senior management approached both the Endeavor and Comair MECs with a request to restructure their contracts, the Endeavor MEC cooperated and the Comair MEC did not. Endeavor grew, and Comair shrank to eventual extinction. When the Comair MEC came back with their hat in their hand, they were told that ship had sailed. When Boeing would not work with Delta senior management, they bought aircraft from Airbus. When Alaska Airlines wouldn’t work with them, they made other arrangements, and we are now expanding rapidly in Alaska’s hometown of Seattle. I cannot identify any situation where our present management team was inclined to sweeten a rejected deal. But history is replete with their willingness to find alternate paths that don’t benefit the people with whom they have bargained.

Section 28 A of the PWA states that absent an agreement by*March 31, 2016*we will jointly petition the NMB for mediation. So the question is, then what? When the mediator asks us for our perspective we would say the company didn’t offer enough. We feel we deserve more because Delta is making a lot of money, many of us lost our pensions, and we are only now getting back to where we were in 2001. Delta will say that they offered us industry leading work rules, industry leading scope, industry leading sick leave, industry leading profit sharing, and industry leading pay including the highest pay rates ever negotiated. They will point to an offer of projected total compensation for the Delta pilots at 15 percent above our counterparts at American, and 23 percent above our counterparts at United. How would the Mediator react?

Meanwhile, the NMB currently has a large caseload and we would naturally go to the back of the line. FedEx has been in negotiations for two and a half years and in mediation since last fall. UPS has been in negotiations for three and a half years and in mediation for a year and a half. Sun Country has been in negotiations for five years and in mediation for three years. Southwest has been in negotiations for three years and been in mediation since last November. Southwest opened at about the time we opened negotiations for C2012. We are now considering our second TA, our second round of improvements with 737 pay far in excess of theirs. Southwest is stuck in the mire of mediation. Mediation is not to be feared, but it’s not a fun place to be. We lose control of the process and the timeline.

The decision before us is a simple one. Do we pick up a minimum of $1.1 billion in additional value, place it in our pockets and come right back into negotiations less than 3 years fromtoday? Or, do we risk getting mired in mediation for years, with a management team with an easily discoverable history when it comes to business dealings? Depending on PTIX, if we wait 1.5 years for a raise, it will take an approximate 25 percent increase just to break even with this TA’s salary. If we wait two and a half years it is 53 percent. It is my personal opinion that this is not a path to success.

More importantly, I also believe that the battle with the Middle Eastern carriers over our international flying is going to be won or lost during the duration of this agreement. If we lose that battle I believe Delta’s profits will be severely affected. The ME3 are angry and they blame Delta for their troubles. They will come after Delta with a vengeance. On that day I would rather be making 21.5 percent more in hourly wages than I make*today.

As a member of the Delta MEC, I had to make a difficult decision on behalf of the pilots I represent. When I removed emotion from the equation, it became a business decision. It is usually my emotional decisions that I later regret, not the logical ones. I voted to approve the tentative agreement and send it to the membership for ratification. I support this TA. I have voted “YES” as a member of Council 44 and I recommend that you do the same.

Fraternally,

Vice Chairman, Council 44

So vote yes or we're going to get Comair'd?

YGTBSM

9 pages of good things for us and one for the company.

Right out of the negoiators slides, because we know they aren't trying to sell the TA. I am glad we have reps that are smart enough to know that you don't have to actually read the TA.

All he did in that letter is just parrot what Harwood said on day 1.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gloopy (Post 1918035)

So vote yes or we're going to get Comair'd?

YGTBSM

And all the "wins"

I don't get it. The concessions are deep and broad. But, the company has to call you when they change your time card...

Really?

That letter is disgusting.

The Pros and Cons... yada, yada, yada. Harwood talking points.
We've been over all that ad nauseam.

Its when he talks about our negotiating leverage that it becomes disturbing.
The Council 44 Vice Chair sounds like he is genuinely afraid.
Afraid of Richard Anderson and afraid of the NMB. Afraid to get up off his knees.

Was the MEC completely unaware of the current economics of Delta Air Lines? The corporation is rolling in cash.
Why is the MEC so afraid and unwilling to threaten that cash machine? The Delta pilots generate that cash.
We are not weak. We are in perhaps the best environment to get a good contract that ANY union has ever been blessed with.

You can't negotiate if you cower in fear of your opponent.
No wonder we have a TA full of concessions.
Anderson had this thing won before the talks even started.

Our MEC (or at least 11 of them) are completely intimidated by management.
It was GAME OVER right from the start.

The MEC is beaten and defeated. Anderson owns them.
This Council 44 letter confirms it.

That leaves the line pilots. We'll see what happens.