gzsg

What is FULL RETRO?

It seems that some of our reps are having a hard time understanding inflation and its effect on our pay rates, benefits, standard of living, and how this effects negotiations wrt full retro. The Delta pilot group last had a pay raise of 4% on Jan 2019. Mgmt continues to drag their feet helped by the poor performance of the NMB and the mediators that have been "assisting" in negotiations for multiple airline pilot contracts that are years overdue.

So, what is fair to expect in terms of full retro when this contract TA arrives?

First, full retro is back pay for work that our pilots have already performed. It is reasonable to expect annual pay raises and increases in benefits, and just because mgmt is dragging their feet doesn't mean that those pay raises and benefits for 2020, 2021, and 2022 should simply be forgiven or evaporate. Our bills, living expenses, and costs on the road have all been going up significantly. How much?

Inflation has spiked 16.7% just since Jan 2021 through this past August 2022. This means that our pay rates must go up 16.7% just to keep pace with inflation. This is before we address any pay rate increases (pay raises) and increases in benefits. Think about that point.

We should expect to achieve very reasonable pay rate increases AFTER inflation adjustments of 3% for 2020, 5% for 2021, and 5% for 2022 (IMO). This would mean we would need pay rate increases of 4.4% for 2020 (3% pay rate increase on top of 1.4% inflation), 12% for 2021 (5% pay rate increase on top of 7% inflation), and 13.3% for 2022 (5% pay rate increase on top of 8.3% inflation). This would mean a cumulative pay rate increase on our 2019 pay rates of 32.48% just through 2022.

That 32.48% pay rate increase from our 2019 pay rates looks like a big number, and it is given the number of pilots and the amount of revenue that we generate for DAL. Mgmt is hoping to keep that number much lower. This will allow mgmt to cap expenses BEFORE they raise prices to keep up with inflation and improve our profits. No matter what our contract increase is, mgmt will move to cover those expenses and raise prices to reflect inflation and generate profits. They've done it most of my three decades here at Delta. What makes our ask "look" unreasonable is the number of years mgmt has been putting off settling our contract.

Full retro also includes increases in 401K contributions, vacation pay, training pay, per diem, and other benefits going back to our amendable date. Mgmt is hoping our pilot group suffers amnesia regarding these issues, but it is fair to go back and adjust full retro to include all of these benefits. This will make the full retro number look very large, and it is because mgmt has failed to address our contract for three plus years now.

Just for some perspective, C2015 captured a contract value increase of $3.17 Billion during extremely low inflation. This represents a contract value increase of 27.1%

Contact your reps. Let them know what you expect for full retro. Don't let the mgmt friendly reps on our MEC lowball this contract and the required increases in pay and benefits since 2019.



We don't work for free. We expect full retro on pay and benefits back to our amendable date for our "sacrifices", time away from family, and outstanding performance during extremely challenging times. Retro is not a bonus. It is money owed for services rendered.

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE VOTING ON IN THIS NEXT TA.

I copied this from another Delta pilot forum with the OP’s permission.

JamesBond

But you keep saying it is in the policy manual. Therefore all this you are writing is redundant diatribe.

rickair7777

Management will make a compelling case to the NC that *they* are not entirely responsible for inflation.

They will also make a case that retro should not include the darkest days of covid. AS TA proposed retro only goes back to Oct 2021, skipping Apr 2020 - Sep 2021 for that reason.

Let your peeps know how you feel now, if you feel strongly about it and don't want to be surprised by the TA.

Gooner

Some pretty fuzzy math there. Look I want the most money we can get and by no means am I arguing for the company here. But that’s quite the sell that we deserve some questionable inflation numbers AND a pay raise for each year of the expired contract. While COVID is not an excuse why we don’t have a contract it still happened. I foresee the company putting a dollar amount to ALPA and we can divvy up the retro. +30% is uh not what I think is going to end up being as a retro. I’ll take it but I’d be surprised.

OOfff

Asking for an 8% retroactive raise above inflation through the pandemic (2020-2021) is going to be a tough sell to even the most friendly mediator

FangsF15

Uncle Sugar paid the company’s wage bill through Covid, so that argument doesn’t wash with me.

Management many not be responsible for inflation, but they do have to deal with it. As ticket prices go up, so must wages to compensate. Besides, they completely covered the fuel price increases of the last year with fare hikes.

I honestly don’t know how the company can argue anything less than inflation retro bare minimum. And even that would get voted down in flames.

gloopy

Right. Of course they're not "responsible" for it.

Neither are we.

They pay the inflated fuel bills. The cost of new planes. Catering. Napkins. Electricity. Construction. Everything.

But labor wages should be reduced through inflation even though nothing else is? Because its "not their fault?"

Nah.

gzsg

We wouldn’t have needed any government money if Ed hadn’t wasted countless billions on stock buy backs to enrich himself (massive fail by the way).

Delta is printing money again and we need to get compensated before Ed starts buying back stock yet again.

Think he won’t? Then you are just not paying attention.

Ed is for Ed.

CBreezy

They didn't *need* they money. We gave them the money so they wouldn't furlough and be ready for when lockdowns ended and people started traveling again..

tunes

retro is pay as if we had a contract. if the company had negotiated in good faith we would have had a new contract prior to covid. We need to be compensated as if we had a new contract and whatever those pay rates would have been. Absolutely no carve out for covid.