Herkflyr

This is the problem with being a negotiator. You can't please all the constituents at once. Try convincing a 777A how "important" it is that a senior (and occasionally junior) FO should routinely expect to stay home and get paid for not working. Hint, you won't get far.

Conversely, try to convince a mid level 88 FO who was furloughed for 5 years how important it is to get even more vacation weeks for the senior widebody captains with 25+ years seniority!

Somewhere between all that they still have to negotiate a TA that will pass MEC muster and THEN the membership.

I don't envy the job.

RockyBoy

I agree. How many LCA do we have at Delta and how many trips do they bid on a monthly basis? It's a lot bigger than "a few".

I'm at 60% in category on a narrowbody and have been playing the LCA game since we got no recovery obligations a few years ago. It's been worth about an extra 25 hours of pay per month for me. I'll be a no voter if we lose the LCA deal.

Purple Drank

My rep confirms the sales job strategy is being mapped out by the MEC.

It will precede the TA's release, with a repetitive "catchphrase" (think: Time Value of Money) bombarding us early and often to wear us down and distract us from all the concessions. Exactly like C12.

He said a TA may already have been reached, (possibly explaining the crying fit by the NC member), and holdout reps are being softened up to try to milk a more favorable final tally to improve the optics (currently 11-8).

Everything the survey said not to touch...is on the chopping block. Pay has not been discussed at the MEC level. Pushing for 50%+1 from the pilot group, and not one vote more.

Apparently Harwood was berating a new rep, yelling and using multiple F-bombs, to pressure him to get on board.

BOHICA.

Purple Drank

Aren't there several hundred attendance at the annual Line Check Airman meetings? 600? 700?

Whatever the number, it's sure to rise with all the training and hiring.

NERD

How and why does Harwood have so much influence and power?

full of luv

I don't know how much we get for anything. The grievance shouldn't be even included in any contract negotiations as far as I'm concerned.

Like said before, I don't envy the negotiators cause we all know that even a 50% pay raise will elicit someone to say "we can get more".

Also I agree with the previous poster that time is on our side. A huge PS payment is brewing, mgmt cannot hire and train fast enough to staff what they want, let alone grow in any major way.

I want as much pay for as little work for the whole list, top to bottom that is possibly achievable.

3 green

Why should we be negotiating concessions with record profits? You are talking about adding something to this contract by adding extra vacation days(your example). We are talking about a major concession for FO's losing the LCA deal we already have..Big difference between adding something to the contract and taking a massive concession. I'm all for adding items on a new TA. With record profits we should be adding a lot of beneficial things...But huge concessions? I don't get it.

Purple Drank

Could be due to a weak and/or incompetent MEC Chairman.

Flamer

Who pays Harwood's salary? Honest question.....don't know who he is or who's side he is supposed to be on.

Scoop

Very good post. I was flying with a guy a few years back and he relayed a conversation he had on his previous trip with a FO.

The Captain was complaining about something that had to do with the commuter policy and he was hoping we could improve conditions for commuters on C2012.

The FO responded that he lived in base and didn't think it was fair that negotiating capital should be squandered on something that only benefits a minority of pilots, albeit quite a few.

Without missing a beat the Captain responded "Well then why should any Captain above 737 sacrifice negotiating capital on small jet scope?"

He said you could virtually see the light bulb illuminate above the guys head in the cockpit. We must safeguard all aspects of our contract for all Pilots.

Bottom line folks: Everything we currently have in the contract has already been bought and paid for. We would be fools to concede anything with Profit sharing going through the roof.

And to those who say "Yeah, but who knows what will happen to PS in 5 years." Why would I care about what happens in 5 or 10 years when we are basically talking about a 3 year deal?

Scoop