Interesting today in the earnings call RA backed off on reducing profit sharing. He said our incentives are obviously working because our performance is so strong. Hope that is the case.

We need to preserve profit sharing and get a historic increase of our hourly rates.

 

I'm a reasonable guy. I'll split it with the stock holders, after my pay/retirement is restored to pre bankruptcy rates.

If Delta makes $4Billion, I think the employees should get $2 Billion of that. You KNOW the other $2 Billion is going to share holders.

 

At this point in time I agree. But what about the next downturn? DAL has to weather the next economic downturn and produce profits in order to be considered a "good transportation company" and not just an "airline". That is the goal. But what if they are not successful? I will say that at this point in time I like profit sharing and that it shouldn't really be on the table in C15. However... when things turn south, we might not be so hasty to put it into the untouchable category. The interesting thing is that when that downturn DOES occur, management will be more than willing to keep or even raise it.

 

And that is why I despise 4833. C12 should have netted us more. Anyone who thinks this current trajectory in profits is going to continue is "High". Also, with the upcoming downturn (I dont know when), we will be sought after to take pay-cuts and contract relief. We are about one contract too late, in my opinion.

TEN

 

We are not in a good economy. Haven't been in one since Bush took office.

 

We will come around to 'Go' anytime now. C12 was an OK contract. Not great, but it didn't suck. We didn't have then, and still don't have much to pattern off of to get better rates. If Jerry is right, and APA is gonna get 5% over ours... how on God's green earth do you or anybody else think we are gonna get your vaunted "restoration"? SOmebody has to raise the bar, significantly n order for us to do that. "Me too" clauses don't do **** to help us achieve our objective.

 

And have accelerated downward since he left.

 

We've been in a leadership position in this industry for quite some time. Just a thought ... but how about WE raise the bar more than slightly better than BK+COLA?

I know it's a lot and it won't be easy. But if not us, then who? Do you really think if we wait for somebody else to do it, that it's ever going to happen? We've set the tone and provided the leadership for this profession for the past decade. And the tone we've set and the leadership we've provided says that we don't ever expect to restore the buying power of our compensation. It says we've accepted bankruptcy as a reset and only expect "reasonable" improvements to that new baseline.

You can't have it both ways, T. Either your goal is restoration... which means you have to put on your big boy pants and not be afraid to say it. Or you're goal is something far short of that. It seems clear which way you lean. You want to pay lip service to restoration every now and then, but then every argument you make is counter to it. Might as well just go ahead and wave that white flag (while wearing your life preserver in case somebody else rocks the boat).

 

I'm no Obama fan or cheerleader but our economy is doing much better today than it was the day he took office. You can't say the same thing for GWB. We were in very deep recession the day Bush left office. Some economists even say we were borderline depression. Go ahead spin away

 

This right here ladies and gentlemen.

Carl