you can bet your money there wt that dl will not give the raises to their employees.... thats an easy call all their mgmt has to say no raises bec theyre above average.... with a top out at 22 or 23 an hr which is 2 to 3 bucks more than us i would not consider that an above avg..
while my dad may be retired long ago from dl he and i have sparred on union representations bec im a strong believer in having a union for protection against corporat mgmt while i admit that unions have their corks mgmt has theirs too as for dl using that to pay their employees not to organize.... piedmont (the commuter for us exp) did the same sh!t and they still went union with the CWA but the mgmt there made sure the 1st couple attempts were doomed to fail.. i was there when that happen... they gave employees a raise then when the cwa failed the first time... the airline took back the raises then all kinds of crap about what the airline did came up and all well the cwa won and now represent EN folks.. so this shannigans that DL is pulling is no surprise to me.
as for the profit sharing.... thats once a yr they pay their employees based on the yr prior as it is at us and at us while all groups except the iam have profit sharing we do have the iam pension fund does dl have any kind of retirement plans for their employees
Funny, Bob says that AA pays its employees based on what it thinks they are worth - true statement.... but if DL gives its employees pay raises and they end up as having above average pay, it is viewed solely on the basis of whether DL is trying to keep the unions out.
Suppose that DL's PRIMARY objective is to pay its employees at above average wages because that tells them what they are worth and thus motivates them to do well?
Again, we have heard for years that WN employees are paid well and do a great job for the company because they are unionized but if DL does the same thing, the motivation is viewed differently?
I don't think so.
DL is a very successful company that knows you can't pay your employees bottom of the barrel wages and expect them to deliver for the company.
It does happen that DL has trotted out pay raises right about the time some of the unionization efforts come around but a 10% or more pay difference over your network carrier peers is a fairly significant premium.
And profit sharing may only be paid once per year but it has amounted to about the equivalent of 3 weeks pay... nothing to sneeze at. Just because it is paid once per year makes it the responsibility of the employee to manage it well; despite what many argue, profit sharing is WITHHELD by the company at high tax rates but that doesn't mean that an employee will end up paying tax rates anywhere close to that high at the end of the year (or by April 15 of the following year).
As much as a 10% profit sharing combined with even 5% profit sharing is a very significant premium over the pay DL employees receive compared to their peers. Further, when the company has paid out large amounts of profit sharing for the past 3 years and expects to continue to do so - and Wall Street believes them - then profit sharing really does become part of your normal pay expectations.
You might think 10-15% in annual pay isn't enough of a difference to matter but I can assure you there are a whole lot of people in the world - and at other airlines in the industry who would gladly take a 10% or more pay raise.
I have consistently said that I support the right of employees to seek union representation and if they can get a better deal, then they should pursue it. I also support those who believe they can help achieve something better than what they have now. Nothing ventured is nothing gained.
My son asks for things all the time; sometimes I say yes and sometimes I don't. He wouldn't get anything beyond what I choose for him if he didn't ask.
But the history is very clear that when looking at an airline as a whole (or all of their represented/non-represented employees), and not an isolated look at one labor group, DL employees not only fared better during the BK years and have recovered more faster than their peers at other airlines who have been represented by labor unions.
For decades, DL employees have believed they are better off by having a cooperative, direct relationship and there are no solid indications that is anywhere close to changing outside of the pilot group - which itself has one of the most cooperative relationships with mgmt. in the US airline industry.
45, Buffy talking about use of corporate aircraft and nice shots of the interior
