it's ok to question DL... but those who want to question DL should also be asking why other airlines haven't done the same thing. The more heavily unionized airlines haven't done it.
Kev3188 said:
It's a great story and goes to show that a collective voice can achieve real progress in the workplace.
For those trying to frame this as DL being a benevolent entity, the question is: why hadn't they raised it in the first place? Why'd they wait until the bright light of the media was shining on them?
T5--
No shortage of Ready Reserve employees at any of the NYC area airports. Operations at LGA's Marine Terminal are farmed out, as are cleaning, lav/water service and more. Not sure who handles regional flights. At JFK, many of those same functions are outsourced, as are some bag room functions. I'm sure I'm missing a few.
All operations at the MAT are on regional jets as well. We aren't in the days when the Shuttles operated with 130-150 seats on mainline aircraft and had standby aircraft ready to roll and extra sections running 15 minutes before scheduled departure at peak times.
I want to see ALL DL operations flown by DL mainline aircraft and worked by DL employees above and below wing but that isn't the reality of the industry.
You also fail to note that a large percentage of the flights from the C and D terminals are RJ flights and worked by DL employees AW and BW.
Once again, DL is doing more to bring more of its flying back to mainline than any other airline. And DL ground handles a larger DCI operation at ATL than all but a couple mainline hubs in the US.
Of course there is something of a political element involved in doing something like this - but why didn't other airlines that had union employees do the same? Why weren't AA and UA's unions successful in demanding that their companies do the same thing for their contractors?
And you can argue about the wage that any company should pay but at what point should any employer just start paying higher salaries because the cost of living for workers in the local makes it tight to maintain a decent standard of living?
Let's be honest that even $10/hour is not a very high salary in NYC but then why do you reward people at the bottom of the job market by pushing their salaries higher and higher into the salaries that other workers have worked to obtain?
In countries that have allowed wage rates to escalate across the board, the evidence is overwhelming that the cost of living goes up just as fast which lives the people at the bottom of the wage pyramid in the same relative position. Assuming a non-abusive starting wage, the only valid way to push salaries up from the bottom is to have the incentive to work to make a higher wage. Further, the economy of a country starts to break down in its unity if some locales have wages and costs of living that are significantly disconnected from the averages of the rest of the country.
