Is It Industry Leading?
 

On July 7th I said a SWA deal was soon to be had. Their union leader knew how to swing the bat in the best negotiating environment in history.

IMO we will see a TA in September.

It is very disconcerting that [the usual suspects] are out in force across all social media spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. This lets us know management is ready for the end game.

Our pilots are highly educated, highly skilled and extremely professional.

No Delta pilot needs to listen to me or Curly to decide for themselves if a TA is "industry leading in pay, benefits and work rules" as our leader Captain Dickson and other management spokesmen have repeated over and over.

We all need to run the checklist.

Is it industry leading?

JV scope

DCI scope

Retirement

Vacation

Training pay

Reserve

Minimum day

Trip rig

Duty rig

Per diem

Hourly rates

I have asked for a list of the industry leaders on all these items from our leadership. A simple checklist.

I.e.

Retirement FedEx and UPS

Vacation FedEx 6 hours per day

Training pay SWA

Hourly rates UPS

Reserve SWA

Etc.

Delta generates the most profit per pilot by far and we deserve nothing less than Captain Dickson keeping his promise. Anything less is a simple No.

I can speak only for myself. I have never wanted to vote Yes more in my career. This golden opportunity cannot be squandered.

I hope Mr. Bastian chooses wisely. His compensation is up almost 1000% since Chapter 11 and good for him. Bravo.

Long past time for him to invest in the Delta pilots who brought over $10 Billion to the industry leading record profits we enjoy today.

I have 100% faith in my fellow Delta pilots.


__________________
Jerry Fielding

The sad thing is its taking, united, American, allegiant, UPS and Southwests Unions to make significant gains in order to try, and i mean try to set our table. ALPA should be leading this advance not following. At the most profitable airline in the world, this should have been much easier. The lack of progress has been staggeringly disappointing.

How new to this business are you? And I don't mean that in a mean way. This is the first time in YEARS that DAL has actually had someone else to pattern off of. I am guessing by your screen name that you are military. I understand how this is frustrating to you. It takes time to turn an aircraft carrier. Oh. air force. It takes time to find the E-5 with a radio and truck to get fuel. :)

you are correct...about the E-5 I mean. :)

It's interesting that Gerry professes 100% trust in the Delta pilot, but 99% of what he writes instructs them on demands we lust make.

I'll simply be happy to trust the Delta pilots.

The reason everyone else is getting good deals is that the group decisively voted last year.

Three words. DPA Propaganda Minister.

This is irony at its finest. Delta led every airline out of the post 9/11 and bankruptcy era for 3 contracts in a row based on interest based bargaining. The minute this pilot group decided not to pursue that strategy, our lead stopped.

You don't think the Delta pilot group pursued 'interest based bargaining" WRT the first TA? Based on the vote it was too much in the interests of management and not enough in the pilots' interest.

I agree you all led the way since 9/11, but the last TA was simply substandard relative to the circumstances (profitability, pilot shortage, positive pattern, etc.) and thankfully the Delta line pilots said no. IMO you all have made the right call every time for the last twenty years with the possible exception of scope, but to a certain extent Moak was right that the RJ situation would fix itself and that the key threat was international (ME3, Norwegian, etc.). Now you have the United extension, the SWAPA TA, and the UPS deal to help.

DAL management overplayed their hand and they are going to pay for it.

I respectfully disagree. The pilots of Delta (not the previous MEC, the membership) led the industry toward significant advances by holding the line during our early-open negotiations last round. We're now about to pattern after those for whom we were enablers. Progress for ourselves is coming; be patient. Nothing worth having comes easily and the mindset that "this should be easy" is a dangerous one at any bargaining table.

I must be the only one who thinks we will not vote on a TA until late next Spring.