Viper25

Is this standard/expected during all contract negotiations (previous contracts)?

p3flteng

yes, the company wants more from or out of us in exchange for as little as they can give….always been that way, every contract.
Our union asks high and we end up somewhere in the middle, sometimes. It usually takes awhile and the last contract actually failed as a TA the first time around then was adjusted higher by more negotiations to come up with a TA that would and finally did pass. Getting a decent improvement is going to take some time…and involve some pain. Info picketing, fly the contract, etc.

blue vortex

Yes, definitely standard company tactics at work here. Years ago (about 20-30years) the company often released their opener. It was astounding to see some of the concessionary requests they had even in times of record profits. Never mind during the 2005 BK process—the ask sheet for the BK contract was beyond belief. In the end always we settled for much better than they proposed even regarding the bankruptcy contracts.

Fast forward to 2015. Just before we we rejected TA1, Richard Anderson famously said we “would not get a better deal” and I believe he was going to drive a hard bargain on that statement. However shortly thereafter he retired and Ed took his place as CEO. I believe Ed “gave in” a bit in late 2016 to facilitate TA2 to because he could see optimizer improvements on the horizon. (Remember company is always one step ahead). He has made various statements stating he doesn’t mind paying Delta pilots the most, however he wants them to be extremely productive at the same time. Even though it was NOT part of the TA2 contract language, from the company’s perspective we did exchange higher productivity for higher wages via the rotation optimizer which started really getting hyper efficient in minimizing soft credit in 2017. That was followed by reroute programming enhancements and OE trip drop work arounds (project pilots, etc). Add in secret negotiators notes provisions and Ed came out smiling at himself every time he looked in the rear view mirror of his Tesla.

What we really need going forward is patience with purpose. A realization that we really need the return of record profits to see a great contract. At the same time we should be doing informational picketing and produce videos like the American pilot group did. Engagement with the company on pressing issues without signing intermediate LOAs. Ultimately what really gets everyone’s attention is at least a year down the road and that is the strike vote with the mandatory goal of 99% participation and 99% in favor of a strike. That really gets the public and media’s attention. Everyone panics that their wedding/vacation/reunion trip on Delta will be cancelled.

FL370esq

Don't forget the inflatable rat....that gets attention too. 😁

theUpsideDown

I love that rat.

DWC CAP10 USAF

His name is Memory, correct?

Memory Rat

Mem Rat for short.

theUpsideDown

I have a passing memory of that too.

Planetrain

I think an often overlooked aspect from memory lane was FedEx and UPS both scoring deals that broke the logjam for us and United. That was huge.

gloopy

Concessionary DH proposals are quite obviously a stalling/delay tactic. Buying time for inflation (exceptional inflation in this case) to further erode our compensation in the hopes that we'll be desperate to grab an 8/3/3 a year or three from now in exchange for "unlocking the gains" with some gives. Sell us back some of our recent compensation in a few years in exchange for concessions on our part.

We can only hope the NMB takes a stern view on something as laughably incredulous as a concessionary DH proposal.

bohicagain

What concessions DH can we give up?