Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?
12-04-2011, 08:38 AM
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I am not sure if you have noticed, but Europe is in a massive debt meltdown and traffic has cratered. Delta has been aggressive about cutting capacity and has turned losses into profits. AF has not cut capacity as quickly and they are losing money. The agreement was designed to sort itself out over time, not six months. Delta and AF are still like two sumo wrestlers waddling around the ring sizing each other up as the work out how to control capacity to make profits, both in expansion and contraction modes. They will either make it work or they will end the alliance.
I encourage you to take the longer view and see how this sorts out. We have one carrier that has been a laggard in developing a larger network through alliances and code shares. They are getting attacked by their larger competitors and now they have a large revenue problem, one that will not go away shortly. That carrier is American Airlines. Please tell me how this "go it alone" strategy has produced anything good for their pilots. They have been shrinking their pilot group constantly over the last years and they recently lost some grievance over minimum pilot count. They are in bankruptcy and will most likely not survive in anything close to their current form. First they will shrink and then they will have to merge with one or more carriers.
The sad facts are that our MEC writes the JV language and the MOU's. All of this has done nothing but help to shrink Delta. But rather than acknowledge it in any way, our MEC sends out people like alfaromeo to explain why we all need to take the long view.
Carl
12-04-2011, 08:39 AM
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Posts: 12,487
Alfa;
Thanks for posting, we non-ALPA cheerleaders do appreciate it, but I gotta chime in.
I'll start with the bolded parts.
1. Soda straw: I am a Delta pilot, married to this company, a soda straw is all I can look thru. If my union thinks that Delta pilots need to be more magnanamous with distribution of flying, time it takes to "get well" and merger synergy payback, where do I sign up to decertify them.
2. Europe is in a massive debt meltdown: This european debt problem and the most recent loosening of money by the fed to help them is beyond the control of the Delta pilots. I can tell you what it does to us though. It makes our paycheck buy less. By devalueing the dollar and propping up the euro my retirement position weakens, my buying power shrinks, and this goes on for some amount of time in the future. Now, I have to be told by my union that this is good medicine for me because sometime in the distant future I will still have a job to commute to.
3. Noone knows whats going to happen at American from a competitive perspective. I am pretty sure what is going to happen to the pilot groups pay and benefits though.
We keep kicking the can down the road. People will fly or they won't. When is my union going to realize that this industry needs to quit decimating the livihoods of the workers it represents? Let us all know when this is the objective of our union. If it is not, let us know that too. By the time "the long view" comes to pass, Saudi Arabia will have pumped its last barrel of oil, China will own all the oil fields in Nigeria, the tar sand oil will go thru a pipeline to new refineries in China because our current administration wont let those pipelines be built thru america.
The next disaster is always going to be something. The ATA colludes against us. I just wish we had a union that would collude for us.
Thanks for posting, we non-ALPA cheerleaders do appreciate it, but I gotta chime in.
I'll start with the bolded parts.
1. Soda straw: I am a Delta pilot, married to this company, a soda straw is all I can look thru. If my union thinks that Delta pilots need to be more magnanamous with distribution of flying, time it takes to "get well" and merger synergy payback, where do I sign up to decertify them.
2. Europe is in a massive debt meltdown: This european debt problem and the most recent loosening of money by the fed to help them is beyond the control of the Delta pilots. I can tell you what it does to us though. It makes our paycheck buy less. By devalueing the dollar and propping up the euro my retirement position weakens, my buying power shrinks, and this goes on for some amount of time in the future. Now, I have to be told by my union that this is good medicine for me because sometime in the distant future I will still have a job to commute to.
3. Noone knows whats going to happen at American from a competitive perspective. I am pretty sure what is going to happen to the pilot groups pay and benefits though.
We keep kicking the can down the road. People will fly or they won't. When is my union going to realize that this industry needs to quit decimating the livihoods of the workers it represents? Let us all know when this is the objective of our union. If it is not, let us know that too. By the time "the long view" comes to pass, Saudi Arabia will have pumped its last barrel of oil, China will own all the oil fields in Nigeria, the tar sand oil will go thru a pipeline to new refineries in China because our current administration wont let those pipelines be built thru america.
The next disaster is always going to be something. The ATA colludes against us. I just wish we had a union that would collude for us.
Carl
12-04-2011, 10:17 AM
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I know I know.....but the press sucks!
Plane in Kansas City searched for explosives - Yahoo! Finance
Plane in Kansas City searched for explosives - Yahoo! Finance
Who the freak is Mercury air?
JT
12-04-2011, 10:44 AM
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12-04-2011, 10:51 AM
Banned
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12-04-2011, 10:58 AM
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For those wanting to vilify Richard Anderson I would like to take you to task on that. Look at the facts:
1) He fought against Mike Levine and John Dasburg and argued against them taking Northwest to a strike in '98. After the strike Levine wanted to park the 74s and fill the pacific with used DC-10s. It was Anderson that argued and won (being appointed to CEO over him) to update the NWA fleet. 319/320s in place of 727s and 330s to replace the DC-10s.
2) He offered the NWA pilots a 10 percent raise after 9/11 without a fight, which is why I personally believe that we will see a SWA like contract mid next year.
3) When Anderson left NWA in October of '04 he left millions of dollars of NWA stock on the table. He knew what was coming down the pipe and wanted no part of it.
4) What Anderson made at United Health Care was multiple times more than what he is getting at Delta. He took a massive pay cut to come back to the airlines. Anybody that has ever heard him speak knows that he loves airplanes and does love this industry. He truly has a vision of building a world class airline. That is his motivation not money. Yes, he is cutting back and Delta is saving money/paying down debt, because, once again he is trying to build a financially stable airline.
5) Look at the rest of the industry. Tell me that every other wouldn't love to have Anderson as a CEO. DAL has posted a 3B profit in the last 18 months where AA has lost 1B. That is a 4B differential in a very short time. That's staggering!
Look at the rest of the industry:
-USAir-civil war between the east and west.
-United/Continental 10 year differential in relative seniority. Wait till that battle begins.
-AA-Sad. Truly poor and sorry management!
-Southwest- Let's see how this stapling of AirTran works.
Carl, before you refute my points, I'll admit I can't beat you in a debate however I am pro DPA but not because I see a ghost behind every management team decision but because I see Alpa as conflicted.
I'll take our management team over any in the industry.
1) He fought against Mike Levine and John Dasburg and argued against them taking Northwest to a strike in '98. After the strike Levine wanted to park the 74s and fill the pacific with used DC-10s. It was Anderson that argued and won (being appointed to CEO over him) to update the NWA fleet. 319/320s in place of 727s and 330s to replace the DC-10s.
2) He offered the NWA pilots a 10 percent raise after 9/11 without a fight, which is why I personally believe that we will see a SWA like contract mid next year.
3) When Anderson left NWA in October of '04 he left millions of dollars of NWA stock on the table. He knew what was coming down the pipe and wanted no part of it.
4) What Anderson made at United Health Care was multiple times more than what he is getting at Delta. He took a massive pay cut to come back to the airlines. Anybody that has ever heard him speak knows that he loves airplanes and does love this industry. He truly has a vision of building a world class airline. That is his motivation not money. Yes, he is cutting back and Delta is saving money/paying down debt, because, once again he is trying to build a financially stable airline.
5) Look at the rest of the industry. Tell me that every other wouldn't love to have Anderson as a CEO. DAL has posted a 3B profit in the last 18 months where AA has lost 1B. That is a 4B differential in a very short time. That's staggering!
Look at the rest of the industry:
-USAir-civil war between the east and west.
-United/Continental 10 year differential in relative seniority. Wait till that battle begins.
-AA-Sad. Truly poor and sorry management!
-Southwest- Let's see how this stapling of AirTran works.
Carl, before you refute my points, I'll admit I can't beat you in a debate however I am pro DPA but not because I see a ghost behind every management team decision but because I see Alpa as conflicted.
I'll take our management team over any in the industry.
12-04-2011, 11:13 AM
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It was widely reported at the time that Delta had to buy out Richard's remaining contract at UHC to get him to come to Delta, which cost about $15Million, so he's not doing this for free...
12-04-2011, 11:21 AM
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Wow! Did Tebow just make that happen? That was impressive.
12-04-2011, 11:25 AM
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Our CEO doesn't think we need anything like the increases it would take to bring our W2's up to SWA pilots W2's. Our union won't even acknowledge the extent of the difference in compensation. I don't think I'm going to hold my breath that we will see a SWA like contract by mid next year. I'd love to see it. But without anyone even trying to achieve it and a CEO who thinks we're already there, I don't think it's going to just magically happen.
12-04-2011, 11:34 AM
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Posts: 561
Opus, that was a good post, and I think you are right about the SWA pay at the end of a section 6, which I think your insight to RA is pretty good....The thing to remember is that in 2002 when the NWA pilots got 10percent raise is we still had to negotiate a while for it, the raise wasn't immediately offered it just seemed really fast because at NWA we always had to go to amendable date plus a couple of years and quite often all the way to a cooling off period.That time they negotiated for a bit and came up with a TA pretty quickly instead of the full hoops of the Railway Labor Act like we usually did. I think things will go in the RA style that you framed.
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