Well Happy New Year and glad you’ve joined this part of the conversation Kev. 2BnB and Q were waiting w/ me for you to jump in.
Even though it’s a new year, looks like we’re back to some of the same issues, so off we go…..
1. You may want to see yourselves as dissidents that the company doesn’t appreciate but your characterizations aren’t accurate. You are as appreciated as any other employee and paid accordingly. Your viewpoints, however, represent a minority view which fewer and fewer employees are willing to embrace; that is probably why there hasn’t been any significant change in the unionization rates at DL in about 50 years. If it does, let me know but I’m not realistically expecting anything different.
2. Whether the memo changes or not, the assertion that was originally made that employees would fare worse off as a result in the change in profit sharing and the advancement of the pay raise is inaccurate, plain and simple. Moving the pay raise forward by 6 months is the equivalent of a 2 ½ percent increase in annual pay. Your profit sharing would have had to be at 7.5% of your salary for a 33% reduction (accurate statement) in profit sharing to result in a decrease in pay. You tell me what percent of your salary you received in profit sharing in 2011 but I am quite sure that it wasn’t at 7.5% (but correct me if I am wrong.)
3. I’ve called it the way I see it with the airline industry and Delta Air Lines for about 9 years now – and even though I have been branded as a dissident on this board – I am unfazed and soldier on with the task I had before me 9 years ago when I started on this forum and am not about to shirk away from in 2013. Among other key points, I said that DL would successfully restructure and become a global powerhouse, and that is precisely what they have done. I have also said that other carriers, including AA and UA would fail to achieve the same level of success and that continues to be the case. I have also said that part of DL’s success would involve retaining its historic non-union status among non-pilot personnel and that has absolutely been the case, to the chagrin of a whole lot of people and the consternation of those who continue to believe that the best interest of DL employees will be met only through unionization. No shortage of people have tried to stop me from speaking on each one of those points and discredit me , yet I continue unabated to the total frustration of a whole lot of people. Oh well.
4. Despite the assertions that the labor movement is necessary to secure a solid future for Delta employees, the facts clearly remain that DL employees suffered the lowest losses among their network airline peers in bankruptcy and have regained far more since BK than any other airline group. While 2BnB would like to paint the picture that something is being taken from DL employees as part of the changes to profit sharing and the pay raise, the fact remains that just in the years 2012-2013, the vast majority of DL employees will rack up compensation increases of 10% or more in 2 consecutive years including profit sharing, a nearly unheard of rate of improvement in compensation in the airline industry, even during the regulated era. More significantly, VERY FEW workers in the US are seeing compensation increases anywhere close to those levels. Look around and #maintainperspective.
5. I am absolutely cognizant of the cultural differences that exist from the way Delta Air Lines operates and the way Northwest Airlines operates, specifically with respect to labor relations. What cannot be denied, however, is that the vast majority of employees in any company are motivated more by compensation than any other factor and on that basis, DL has provided a #superioremploymentexperience when compared with other airlines. Allegiance to the labor union cannot trump economic aspects – and endless threads on this forum are filled w/ the failure of labor unions to achieve what they promised. Network pilots pine on one chat forum after another how they are trying to achieve the gains that DL pilots’ have obtained. Even WN’s heavily unionized and typically best-of-the-industry compensation policy is not achieving anywhere close to the level of increases that DL employees are enjoying.
6. Given DL’s ability to successfully integrate and benefit from the NW merger followed by the identification and implementation of initiatives necessary to grow the company’s profitability, DL employees will likely continue to enjoy compensation increasingly ahead of their network carrier peers and closer to WN employees, who are not seeing the pay increases they once did. The only likely outcome is that the rate of pay increases in 2012 and 2013 at DL will not continue at that rate for many more years – but the distance between DL and other airline employees is already growing wide enough that it will be impossible for other carriers to close for years to come, driven by the fact that DL is and will continue to deliver profitability that far exceeds what other US airlines are able to deliver.
Against that backdrop and those realities, assertions that DL is somehow taking something away from DL employees will increasingly ring hollow.
Those of us who are thrilled to see DL and its employees achieve this kind of success will vigorously challenge assertions that the success being experienced by DL and its employees is anything short of some of the best airline employees have ever seen.
Given that I am certain there will be no disagreement to those key principles, the DL forum of this site will be nothing short of peace and tranquility in 2013.
