Still the TWU will not respond.
One of the things the TWU likes to throw out is that all the work groups, including the pilots gave concessions.
However the concessions given were different.
The pilots took an immediate 25% paycut, but thats it. At the same time however the pilots were relieved of the fine they owed the company, around $25 million or around $2000 per head. That already knocks it down to 24%, plus they won the SCOPE greievance, another $23 million, down to 23%.
In the first year the pilots snap back another 9%. Over the life of the agreement they snap back another 12%, so in 2009 they will have recovered all but 2% of their concessions, not counting inflationary losses.
The pilots were given 1026 shares, today worth around $12,000, so over the life of the agreement they will have recovered pretty much everything.
The pilots still have reason to be mad. They will in effect not only have taken pay cuts but have made no progress over 5 years. They will in effect be frozen at 2001 rates.
How do we compare?
Over the life of this agreement our pay will snap back a total of 7.5%. That means at the end of the agreement we will still be in the hole for 10% in wages plus all the other losses which would be around another 8%. So we will still be in the hole for around 15%, not counting inflationary losses which historically would be around another 15%.
While the pilots will see themselves frozen we will in fact be suffereing from a real decrease of around 30%. More than double that of the pilots.
The pilots are in a stand alone craft union. Our AFL-CIO affiliated TWU got us a deal that is twice as bad as the pilots.
Isnt it time we got a new union?