I always thought that one of the promises that Delta had was "no layoffs"once you reach Full time status? They also used to pay either near or at Top of the Industry. Well Southwests Unionized Mechanics are at around $45/hr, how much are you guys making? Another broken promise? Whats the story with your pension? I hear they have some weird thing going on with Social Security offsetting your pension, unclear, its hard to get info out of Delta people, people are afraid to speak out over there because Delta likes to fire people who speak too much.
The Pilots kept their union, so did the dispatchers and they both make more than you. The Dispatcher training is less than half as long as that of an A&P and they dont work outside. Stay Non-union along with the low paid Agents and FAs and watch the gap between the Pilots/Dispatchers and all you non-union folks grow, or you can do like you've always done and wait for the unionized workers to set the rates and hope that Delta keeps that promise.
Half as long Bob?..Try 1/10th the training. It takes a minimum of 1900 hrs for an A@P vs 200 hrs for a dispatcher. I know because I have both. In addition dispatchers most of which are in CASS can jumpseat on other airlines just like the pilots do while we mechanics cannot except for our own airlines and only a few of those allow mechanics that privilege. I have often thought of getting out of the maintenance side of things because we have always been treated like a red headed bastard step child of aviation regardless of airline and I think we ourselves are a big reason why. We are more diverse as a group than ANY other group in aviation. From the line guy who troubleshoots live flights in all kinds of weather to non-licenced guys who work in some back shops who rebuild the same widget everyday and everything in between. Whereas pilots and dispatchers their job is pretty straight forward they have to deal with weather but the basic job is the same for everyone and all have to be licensed where all mechanics do not.