SWA Negotiating Chairman Update
12-29-2015, 01:57 PM
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SWA Negotiating Chairman Update
Delta and United working to raise the bar
Happy Holidays everyone. I hope your Christmas was filled with family and full planes.
We had a very busy week last week. Continual contact with our peers around the industry keeps the NC well-apprised of the current state of affairs. With regard to that, our counterparts at United and Delta provided us with a couple of early Christmas gifts last week.
The Delta Negotiating Committee presented their re-opener to management. The Delta MEC directed their NC to re-engage the company with a "Focused Plus" strategy after their failed TA last summer. Their negotiators were tasked to correct "Focused" issues, meaning the primary objectives of the pilot group from their failed TA. Furthermore, they were given the goal of "Plus" which introduced important additional proposals not included in the rejected offer. Key issues for DALPA's Focus Plus include significant gains in compensation/value, scope, sick leave, vacation accrual, and work rules.
In addition to those areas, Delta pilots felt the rejected TA was lacking in the area of hard pay rates. The re-opener calls for pay increases of 22 percent on January 1, 2016; 7 percent on January 1, 2017; and 7 percent on January 1, 2018. Today, Delta's 12-year captain rate on the 737-700/800 is $218.11 per hour. The proposed increases would raise the rate to $304.65 effective January 1, 2018. This would reflect an increase over the current Southwest 12-year captain rate of 39.7% on that date. Delta pilots are expecting to retain their current profit sharing plan without modification.
Delta's opener wasn't the only bit of Christmas cheer for your NC last week. The MEC at United Airlines will be forwarding a TA to their membership for consideration. The agreement, which becomes amendable January 31, 2019, includes guaranteed pay rates with a total compounded increase of 22.28% in January 2018. The TA also contains language to "snap up" their compensation if the average annual percentage pay increase of a new Delta agreement exceeds the United TA within certain parameters. The TA has additional language for furlough longevity, furlough protections, and schedule rule changes that benefit the pilots. Voting on the TA begins on January 5 and ends January 22. We would like to congratulate the pilots at United for reaching a critical milestone and wish them the best in voting on the agreement before them.
One last item I'd like to mention is the announcement late Wednesday of an agreement in principle between the Company and TWU Local 555, the union which represents our ground ops employees. The announcement comes after years of tense negotiations which stretch back to 2011. Like us, they have been negotiating inside the federal mediation process, but what is especially encouraging is that the deal was reached outside of meetings with the federal mediator. Hopefully this is the first of several long-overdue agreements which will show management is ready to start fresh in 2016 with a desire to share our airline's extraordinary success with its frontline employees.
Your Negotiating Committee is currently reviewing, costing and analyzing both the Delta and United positions. The NC has also worked with the IRC to fine-tune our polling which opens early January in order to further identify all areas that fell short in the Company's last offer. As always, I encourage you to provide inputs and feedback directly to your reps as well.
We are thankful that our peers at Delta and United have further raised the bar for our profession. We intend to do the same. Their contracts differ from ours to be sure, but so does their career progression and ability to fund their retirements. Rest assured that we intend to put forth a proposal that not only exceeds what our peers have achieved but also improves on many of the unique cultural items that make a Southwest pilot a Southwest pilot.
Casey Murray
Negotiating Committee, Chair
[email protected]
Happy Holidays everyone. I hope your Christmas was filled with family and full planes.
We had a very busy week last week. Continual contact with our peers around the industry keeps the NC well-apprised of the current state of affairs. With regard to that, our counterparts at United and Delta provided us with a couple of early Christmas gifts last week.
The Delta Negotiating Committee presented their re-opener to management. The Delta MEC directed their NC to re-engage the company with a "Focused Plus" strategy after their failed TA last summer. Their negotiators were tasked to correct "Focused" issues, meaning the primary objectives of the pilot group from their failed TA. Furthermore, they were given the goal of "Plus" which introduced important additional proposals not included in the rejected offer. Key issues for DALPA's Focus Plus include significant gains in compensation/value, scope, sick leave, vacation accrual, and work rules.
In addition to those areas, Delta pilots felt the rejected TA was lacking in the area of hard pay rates. The re-opener calls for pay increases of 22 percent on January 1, 2016; 7 percent on January 1, 2017; and 7 percent on January 1, 2018. Today, Delta's 12-year captain rate on the 737-700/800 is $218.11 per hour. The proposed increases would raise the rate to $304.65 effective January 1, 2018. This would reflect an increase over the current Southwest 12-year captain rate of 39.7% on that date. Delta pilots are expecting to retain their current profit sharing plan without modification.
Delta's opener wasn't the only bit of Christmas cheer for your NC last week. The MEC at United Airlines will be forwarding a TA to their membership for consideration. The agreement, which becomes amendable January 31, 2019, includes guaranteed pay rates with a total compounded increase of 22.28% in January 2018. The TA also contains language to "snap up" their compensation if the average annual percentage pay increase of a new Delta agreement exceeds the United TA within certain parameters. The TA has additional language for furlough longevity, furlough protections, and schedule rule changes that benefit the pilots. Voting on the TA begins on January 5 and ends January 22. We would like to congratulate the pilots at United for reaching a critical milestone and wish them the best in voting on the agreement before them.
One last item I'd like to mention is the announcement late Wednesday of an agreement in principle between the Company and TWU Local 555, the union which represents our ground ops employees. The announcement comes after years of tense negotiations which stretch back to 2011. Like us, they have been negotiating inside the federal mediation process, but what is especially encouraging is that the deal was reached outside of meetings with the federal mediator. Hopefully this is the first of several long-overdue agreements which will show management is ready to start fresh in 2016 with a desire to share our airline's extraordinary success with its frontline employees.
Your Negotiating Committee is currently reviewing, costing and analyzing both the Delta and United positions. The NC has also worked with the IRC to fine-tune our polling which opens early January in order to further identify all areas that fell short in the Company's last offer. As always, I encourage you to provide inputs and feedback directly to your reps as well.
We are thankful that our peers at Delta and United have further raised the bar for our profession. We intend to do the same. Their contracts differ from ours to be sure, but so does their career progression and ability to fund their retirements. Rest assured that we intend to put forth a proposal that not only exceeds what our peers have achieved but also improves on many of the unique cultural items that make a Southwest pilot a Southwest pilot.
Casey Murray
Negotiating Committee, Chair
[email protected]
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