Harwood's 3/10 post
 

For those not on Facebook. The smartest man in the room has more to say:

"The reaction to my previous post tells a lot about the logic and reasoning behind this “new direction” in the pilot group. When you are presented a fact based argument and your response is “You are a butthole” then you have a pretty good indication that you are bankrupt of ideas and are simply running on bluster. In fact this “new direction” and the “new MEC” are operating almost like a cult where you either adopt the gospel hook line and sinker or you are shunned from the society. You might note that you have already lost the orange lanyard unity war; if management sees someone with an orange lanyard they can either think the pilot is on board with the union or just afraid to be harassed by the Council 66 goon squad. “Join me or else” is not unity it’s blackmail.

Since there were no facts presented to counter my arguments I thought it might stimulate discussion to find out exactly how we got to C2K and understand the role of incremental pattern hopping. I am not sure exactly of the chronological order but this is close, starting around 1997-8:

We converted our profit sharing in a straight trade 6% profit sharing for 6% of pay. That’s right it wasn’t 14.5% in pay vs. 5% profit sharing like the TA is was a straight 1 for 1 trade. John Malone was the NC chairman.

American got a deal following the 15 minute strike.
We signed a 737 NG deal about on par with American’s rate.
Northwest got a deal following a strike, slightly ahead of American.
We signed a 777/767-400 deal ahead of Northwest’s 747 rate in a deal that also eliminated the B-Scale. We might have had a 3% general rate increase with that, but not sure.

United signed a deal that went a few points above our 777 rate and brought their other aircraft along

Delta signed a deal that was United plus 1% (C2K).
US Air’s me too clause kicked in and put them just above Delta.
That is how pattern bargaining works. You don’t take leaps of 45% at a time. You take incremental steps and you get all the carriers taking steps in a timely fashion to build on each other. That was one of the problems we had from about 2010 on. US Air was stalled, American was stalled, United was stalled, and Continental was stalled. The only pattern was being set by Delta. In fact, the United deal that was just signed was the first time someone gave us a pattern to bargain off of for years. Now we are squandering that opportunity because we are not following sound bargaining practices.

If someone believes this is possible I would like them to cite one example since deregulation where one carrier signed a deal that put them top of industry plus 45%. In fact you would be hard pressed to find any that were double digits above top of market; I am not sure there are any. That isn’t how pattern bargaining works.

Your second assignment is to go into a BMW dealer, get your whole family dressed up in orange, tell the dealer you took a survey of your family, and you demand a BMW top of the line sedan at 45% below invoice. Tell them you are unified in your position and they have to find the exact car you want within the exact time frame you tell them. Oh and then you can add the kicker; wait for it……wait for it……tell them that they have to make that deal because BMW makes billions in profits and they can afford it. Let me know how that works out for you.
Contract negotiations are not that mysterious. You just apply the normal rules you use in any negotiation; identify the market, research the market, make your offer based on facts and data. Sign the deal when you have gone as far as you can go. This is not a testosterone contest, this is not a propaganda contest, this is just a business deal. The same as any other deal just with bigger numbers. If you can’t get out of market by 45% on a $50,000 car, how are you going to do that on a $3,000,000,000 yearly contract? You can insult me all day and it won’t change that hard fact."

You are no more dumb for having read what this has-been had to say.

Ok, I'll admit, I haven't done the math. But when I read the new Dalpa counter offer/proposal after the much needed house cleaning, are we really asking for 45% more than United's current rates? I thought we asked for 15/7/7 or thereabouts without concessions. Is Uncle Richie factoring in our higher profit sharing to help make the company's case for them? Where is he getting the 45% above currently highest hourly rates?

I don't like feeling so stoopid, but I have no idea why he is saying we are asking for a 45% premium. Please help me feel more smarter. (Caution: Grammatical errors added for effect)

in the interest of full disclosure....it should be amplified that...... 'leaps forward'.......do not happen in a single bound.

however....leaps backwards apparently can, do, and HAVE happened in a single bound.....with the author of this drivel being foremost in facilitating and cheering on such occurrences.

as i pointed out to Dave Bushey when he was comparing dal pay rates to amr......we are going to have to be AT AMR+ 25% to even get my attention.....cuz the APA pilots that were uniformly scoffed at by alpa opertatives like this jackass....actually have a pension plan with real value.....and not simply an iou in a paper sack from their employer.

anyone who wonders what is wrong with alpa should understand it is the defective dna of the organism that elevated this type of individual to near deity status.

he is as wrong now....as he ever was..... but then we spend $50M /year in dues for 'volunteers' like this to tell us how stupid we all are......maybe we ARE that dumb?

Rich's BMW argument falls on it's face for a couple reasons:

1. WE are the BMW, not the purchaser. And WE are the ONLY BMW in the showroom. There are no alternatives for the company to purchase.

2. The Company is the purchaser, they are 'buying' our labor (BMW), at a price that is today 18% BELOW the 2004 BMW price!!

Tell Rich to walk into his BMW dealership and see if he can find a brand new BMW for 18% less than the 2004 sticker price!

He's an idiot and has forgotten (or never realized) that all capital is the result of labor, not vice versa.

Also, he and the MEC he worked for, never put a total dollar amount to the concessions we have been giving, and continue to give, to Delta Air Lines, since 2004. I estimate that half of last year's $6 Billion 'earnings' were directly attributable to OUR pay cuts and lost DB plan, and all the other ongoing concessions, like PBS reduced staffing (20% job loss), lost vacation, JV Scope compliance, etc.

For the life of me I don't understand why they can't undrtstand that the rejection of TA 2015 had little to do with pay rates.

It's sad that we had DALPA union leaders negotiating FOR management.

Bob,

Excellent points all. Far from drivel.

But we spend $50M/year in dues for volunteers like this to tell us how stupid we are...line of the year!!!

What Harwood and the rest of the Apple Dumpling Gang did was get on their knees and gave our execs 100% of what they wanted.

Massive concessions and self funding. They buy into the concept of permanent reset.

Our execs compensation is up over 900% since Chapter 11 and somehow Rich is cool with that.

Our vacation is a joke.

Southwest 210 hours max

FedEx 216 hours max

Delta 113:45

And nickel of per diem? Really?

Hey Rich, got two $20s for a $10?

Worst negotiation in the history of man.

Who makes concessions during record profits?

I have 100% faith in Captain Malone, our MEC and our negotiators.

What yall said.

If he had just taken a communications class at C Springs, he would have been on the White House lawn and not his brother.