I agree.

Finally, traction with the doubters. Thank you for defending your opinion, seriously. I know several lurkers were/are doubters as well.

<signed> The crazy 3B4 guy.

 

Guys,

I am sorry for not being INSTANTANEOUS, as I really do try to vet everything that I post, and hopefully, you can understand, that it does take some time. I have had numerous conversations over the weekend to try and get the exact correct information

In any case, I believe I misspoke, or at least was misinterpreted. Under the REJECTED TA, (why are we still talking about this?) PS payout in 2016 would have been unaffected (in other words we are about to get the same dollars we would have). PS payouts in 2017 would have been calculated on a reduced formula for 2016 earnings.

In 2016 a pilot would have seen the same W-2 (plus 14% roughly) but in 2017 his PS payout would have been decreased by about ~6%; plus with a 3% pay raise; you get a net PAY CUT for the 2017 earnings year.

Again, in any case, that ship has sailed, and our NC is on to a different proposal. I feel very certain that "IF" anything is done with PS in this next TA, it will be VERY transparent as to the exact tradeoff with regards to PS, and there will me no muddying of the waters with pay rates or other items.

Again, I say "IF".

Sorry for any misunderstandings with my previous post.


Jim Villers
P2P Chairman

 

I cannot state that a grievance is "in the works".

However, the issue of the timing of the non-contract employee pay raises (December 1st vs. January 1st) was a topic of discussion at the November MEC meeting, and it IS being investigated.

There is the written word, and there is the "intent" of the written word.

It is not being ignored by the MEC Administration.

Jim Villers
P2P Chairman

 

Jim, I appreciate your work but there should be no "IF". I think the membership has been clear on that.

 

I'm pretty much just a dumb ex-mil pilot,but if we trade our PS for pay, won't that just become the new standard 3 years later when they look at United and American pay rates? Even worse they could say we are so high above them we don't get a raise? It seems like once you monetize it, it will be gone forever.

 

You made my point for me. PS should be separate from payrates.

 

Just reviewing the previous years 10-K reports prior to tomorrow. Here's my argument for variable compensation remaining in pilot compensation. The at risk portion will not really be at risk.

From the 2013 10-K amendment filing:



Pay for performance

Pay for performance is the foundation of our executive compensation philosophy. Our executive compensation program places a substantial portion of total compensation for 2013 at risk: 94% of our Chief Executive Officer’s and 90% of our other named executive officers’ total compensation. Furthermore, the majority of total compensation is paid in the form of Delta stock, which, together with our stock ownership guidelines, aligns the interests of management to those of stockholders. We believe our stockholders recognize this alignment as shown by the significant approval of our executive compensation program through an advisory vote at our 2012 and 2013 annual meetings.

The P&C Committee sets stretch performance goals under our annual and long-term incentive plans to drive Delta’s business strategy and to deliver value to our stockholders. Consistent with these principles:


• The vast majority of the compensation opportunity for our executive officers is earned contingent upon Delta’s achieving its financial, operational and customer services goals and stock price performance.

• Based on our strong performance in 2013, we paid out 168.75% of target under our annual incentive plan and 200% of target under our 2012 long-term incentive plan.

• The P&C Committee designs our incentive plans to closely align the interests of management with frontline employees by using many of the same financial and operational performance measures in both our executive and broad-based employee compensation programs.
If there is no payout under Delta’s broad-based employee Profit Sharing Program for the year:
- There will be no payment under the annual incentive plan’s financial performance measure.
- Any payment to executive officers for other performance measures may not exceed the target level.
- All payments will be made in restricted stock rather than in cash, which will not vest until there is a subsequent profit sharing payment.

The Profit Sharing Program paid out a record $506 million for 2013.



2013 Compensation Decisions.

The P&C Committee reviews our executive compensation program annually. In 2013, few changes were made to the program. These changes are described in this Compensation Discussion and Analysis.

 

Jim -

I don't know you but you seem to have the respect of several informed posters. Your willingness to go public, get it wrong, listen to pilots, admit mistakes, and correct the error has earned my respect as well. I encourage you to do more posting. The forum has a good track record of vetting documented information, take that as involvement and not criticism. No harm, no foul. Nice recovery. (#%$@ing GPWS)

 

Ask your reps. The total value after analyzing the entire TA (pluses and minuses) was $113.4M in 2015 alone. That's money out of our pockets. That's a smaller PS check in February because we earned less, that's less DC funding for our retirements. All the reps know the values, in oipen session at the September meeting none of the fabricators of the joint comm could could explain how they came up with 4%. Just a deer in the headlights look.

What's our 1E9 protection protecting the Delta brand now?

ALPA warned us, the fabricators stuck their head in the sand and suggested we'd get 3%.

 

That's spin. The money is earned in 2016, or 2017, or 2018, as is the PS. When it's paid depends. An early partial payout of PS, like we saw last year blows the whole "we'll see a paycut in 2017" out of the water. Besides, there is no pay cut, PS is not pay, it's profit sharing. That whole line was just spin.