LiveInAHotel said:
Yes, pilots make a lot of cash. But, they also have the biggest responsibility out of anyone at the airline. They're responsible for all crew members and pax on their flight, plus the plane!
"I don't know what you do for DL, but it's obvious you're not a pilot, so you must be non-union." If you're a f/a, you had your chance to organize and blew it. DL can take as much of your benefits as they feel, because you're non-union. They just tell you they're doing it and you can't do a thing about it.
I hope your pilots don't give a cent to DL. Now that DL announced they're planning on giving all of you new uniforms when they're flat broke. Guess who DL wiull take money and benefits from if the pilots don't give a cent? You guessed it, all non-union employees. Why you ask? No CONTRACT!
I can agree with part of your post, but the rest lacks a basis in fact.
Where we agree is Delta's pilots deserve to be well paid. The skills and judgment that they develop over the years justifies a premium payscale. As someone who relies on pilots to keep me safe while I am at work, I want Delta to be able to select from the best when we are hiring and retain them. Remaining the best paid in the industry should help ensure a well qualified pilot group.
The rest of your post reflects your lack of in depth knowlege of Delta. For example, Your statement to flyhigh that "it's obvious you're not a pilot, so you must be non-union." Pilots are not the only organized group here at Delta. If you had said that it is "likely" that he is non union, you would have been correct. To state that he "MUST be non-union," is incorrect and makes it obvious that you are not very aware of who is what here at Delta.
You imply that the flight attendants could have avoided the benefit changes by organizing. This is not true. The company could have still made these changes even if the AFA could have come up with the 3997 or so additional votes necessary to elect the AFA. Again, voting yes two years ago would have not protected us from the changes that have been made.
APFA demonstrated the value of a contract when it voluntarily took pay and benefits cuts that took the AA flight attendant out of the 1 to 2 year leadership position that they held in the industry. The AA contractually protected flight attendants are now in the same position or worse than those of us non contract flight attendants at Delta. Any difference is not significant enough for you to justify throwing stones at us on this issue. In the end, APFA proved that there was no contract advantage.
The uniforms are going to cost three milion over a three year period according to a speech made by Jerry at a line chack airmen meeting. While it is an outflow, it is minimal compared to the Delta's other expenses. Also, Delta is not broke. We have over 2.5 billion dollars in cash. A more factual statement is we are losing money, not that we are "flat broke."
Hopefully, we will not be losing money for too much longer. The pilots are going to come to the table, and there will be concessions. At a recent line check airman meeting, Jerry said that it will be in the neighborhood of thirty percent if we are to avoid bankruptcy.
One way or another, the union employees and the non union employees at Delta are all going to share equally in the productivity gains necessary to return to profitability.
If you could see past the union/non union, contract/non contract lens through which you see the world, you might be able to base your analysis on facts rather than dogma.
