N9373M

PilotFrog

If it takes 5 years or more to negotiate all these contracts why don't we have a 2 year contract that stipulates a COLA for the years we are in negotiations. Kinda ridiculous this process takes so long. The time might not mean much to the company, but 5 years of no change in wages can be a large part of some people's career.

capncrunch

American Airlines labor contracts may be voided in bankruptcy - USATODAY.com

capncrunch

Watchdog: Many co-pilots don't meet training standards - USATODAY.com

acl65pilot

Just me, but I suspect the judge will tell Horton he is a little too premature in that. If not, the bandwidth for a PWA deal with the company got very tight.

I suspect AMR will get a six month extension, and the new date we are all working towards is Sept 29th. Six months would be extremely short for any company in CH11. Now six months from now, things will be shaping up differently. The judge will not render a ruling on throwing out the contracts, but make the parties work harder towards a solution. The new rules are the reason the timeline is getting compressed.

Rogue24

Just got this, edited out the full names, if I missed one let me know. Formatting sucks, and cannot be helped.

Delta Council 54

March 22, 2012

Update



Description: cid:[email protected]





This is a comprehensive recap of the MEC meeting that took place in ATL from March 6–9. The three of us were in attendance for the meeting.

The majority of our time was spent refining and further crafting the opener to be presented to Delta management by our Negotiating Committee. We had briefings from subject matter experts from ALPA’s Economic and Financial Analysis Department along with the MEC's own Strategic Planning Committee. We feel that the MEC is ready, and, as you are aware by now, the company and the negotiators met on Tuesday, March 13 to exchange the openers. They will pass along as much information as they can in a timely, yet responsible, manner.

At the end of the first day of the meeting, MEC Chairman Tim O held an open discussion of the events (from his view) on a communiqué pertaining to the duty rig grievance in our council update dated Friday, March 2. He presented his viewpoint that the administration did not stop or delay the update we forwarded on behalf of the former NWA pilots trip/duty rig from that team. Attorney Bill R addressed the MEC, stating that the grievance had ALPA’s “top priority.” We countered that the administration had no right to stop or delay a council communiqué. The only notice we ever received was from a named committee chairman to contact. There was an approximate 45 minute discussion. Later during the meeting, BR informed Council 54 Chairman Harney that he did stop the communiqué. BR is not part of the administration. Pat pointed out that he had no right to do such a thing, and if there was a problem he should have called to discuss the issue immediately. Instead, Council 54 officers had to track down the reason for the delay on that update, which had been blamed on a committee chairman.


We have made our voice heard crystal-clear to the entire MEC on this matter, and it appears that the MEC administration was not responsible for the delay on the update. We have agreed to print this explanation, and we have returned to the practice of providing our council communiqués to MEC Communications for fact-checking and legal review. The Council 54 officers consider this matter closed.

On day two of the meeting, three pilots spoke directly to the Delta MEC in accordance with the Delta MEC Policy Manual. This was the first time that the policy manual option giving floor time to membership was used, and those pilots were well received. Here is a recap:


Captain David I: His speech was directed to the MEC to restore the pay and benefits to the Delta pilots. He was upset about the treatment of Delta pilots by Flight Ops. He spoke to the line check blitz as being an attack and not pilot friendly due to what the word blitz means to him.


Captain Whitney S: This was a very moving speech to the MEC over an on-the-job injury and his battle to return to line flying. He expressed great disappointment over treatment by Delta and ALPA. He brought forth a resolution on OJI issues and hoped the MEC would pass it, which it did. Council 54 would like to thank Captain S for his courage in telling his story to the MEC. The MEC is looking into the facts of how this was handled by DALPA.


Captain Ken W: He spoke to the MEC about the former NWA trip/duty rig grievance and his concerns on lack of resources and commitment to pursue the case against the company. He said he was “in it to win it” and if the MEC did not want that to let him know. No MEC member spoke up, so we feel Captain W has the mandate to “win it.”



The MEC ratified a new Air France/KLM/Alitalia/Delta pilot protocol. This will be up on our website shortly along with the Code Share Committee PowerPoint presentation. If you view the Delta slides on transatlantic capacity, you will see that, towards the end of 2012, Delta’s share of EASKs (roughly analogous to ASMs) starts to grow. Capacity was not increasing due to mod lines having a fair amount of 767s getting the new lie-flat seats. As you can view, Delta will be increasing share and has the room in the agreement to grow up to the 50/50 production balance. We need to see a European economic recovery to help usher in some growth in the Atlantic markets.


Another item to note is the close to one billion dollars that Air France lost in 2011. They are going to have to restructure and have instituted pay freezes for now. The European economies are not doing well, and it has been reflected in transatlantic capacity.

Nothing happens in a vacuum in business and the industry restructuring that happened from 2002 through September 16, 2006, to almost all the legacy carriers has spread to the regional industry. Overcapacity and high fuel costs are rapidly leading to capacity being removed from this segment and accelerating the removal of 50-seat and below regional jets. There are also a few LCCs that are in financial peril. Keep an eye on the news and headlines from this segment of the market. Bankruptcies and consolidation will likely occur in this segment as well.

AMR is looking at an extension from the bankruptcy court to present their restructuring plan. AMR froze many pension plans, but the pilots’ plan is still not frozen. The situation is fluid, and their plan might not have the confidence of the unsecured creditors committee.


Understanding when to make a move or when to stay put is vital in business. If you had knowledge of such a change, do you make the move and help the company, or do you not care? The question really begs the reality that, like it or not, our fortune and career stability are joined at the hip with Delta Air Lines. So if we informed you that our Narita operation is subject to the slow erosion of its importance by another round of slots being released by the Japanese government, what would you do? Narita is vital to the Seattle base, and the threat is real. Imagine a reduced number of passengers who use NRT. Those passengers, who are going to Tokyo, will want to use Haneda. If you lose 35-50% of your passengers, the full A330-300s could become A330-200s or even 767s. So if and when there is a Call to Action on DeltaNet, we fully expect ALL OF YOU to participate to keep this base stable and growing. The three of us cannot do it alone.


The AE was announced the day before the meeting, and it called to question the fact that pilots were left out of the early retirement option. We expressed our disappointment and were reminded by the MEC vice chairman that it is the company’s choice. We have no contractual protections to force them to offer it. We were also informed that there is a management group that is also exempt from the early-out program.



We find this disappointing and feel the medical that is being offered would have been a draw for pilots on the larger aircraft. In the past, medical was limited to a few months. We believe pilots should have been offered, and we might have had a twofold effect—limit displacements and help flatten out the spike in retirements due. Even a recent Flight Ops publication spoke to the upcoming mass quantities of pilots retiring. In our opinion it is rational to flatten the spike and control the attrition.


///////airline specific info see ALPA C54 page for data///////////



Also, please be extra vigilant when operating on non-grooved runways. Braking action, or lack of it due to standing water, could be a problem with braking distances.

The contract opener is again a wish, want, and priority list. We understand there are great expectations and we share them; we have written about them over the last 15 months. We know the Delta pilots should be leading the industry. It is clear to the three of us where we need to be, and the pilot group has reflected that attitude in the contract survey.

Is our labor contribution fairly valued in the market place? Not industry average, but if the Delta pilots are providing top tier performance, then they need to surpass the other leaders in our brackets. The airlines that clearly come to mind are Southwest, Federal Express, and UPS. There should be no areas that are stuck in the historical ditch that is a contract negotiated under the duress of bankruptcy, albeit improved over the last few years due to our unprecedented involvement in the merger. Where we finish is more important than where we start. Speed and flexibility allow companies to make strategic moves for long term stability and profitability.

Great, you say, but there are only three of us and 560 pilots in SEA. We need each and every one of you to participate, read, and listen. 560 voices are louder than three. You must join us and help all 12,000 Delta pilots get the long overdue contract that we deserve.


Chairman’s Perspective: The Delta MEC has adopted the slogan “Leading the Industry.” Leading the Industry means more than just getting a contract done fast and more than just a great contract from day one. It means continuing to break the paradigms of our industry to find new ways to work with management, industry, government agencies, and anyone else who affects our careers, so that we maximize the gains for the Delta pilots. It means building on our collective successes, equity from bankruptcy and merger, fighting off the US Airways hostile takeover attempt, successful merger with an SLI process in place and JCBA before SOC, and gains from the SOT/TOT (e.g., modification of recovery flying obligations [23G and 23K]). It means that no matter how the negotiating environment changes, our goals do not. It means seizing every opportunity to improve the pay, working conditions, and benefits of the Delta pilots.



Your union presented our opener for Contract 2012 more than three weeks early. Many of our pilots have asked why, and why is it in the interest of Delta management to want to open early. There is a perception that it is in the best interests of management to drag out negotiations, but that is not necessarily the case. We believe it is in the best interests of both parties to reach a comprehensive agreement in an expeditious manner. We have your input, and we have directed the negotiators based on that input. We can do it in a few months, or, if pushed down the traditional path, we can complete a new contract perhaps over a few years. Either way, we are ready. With the feedback we have received from line pilots, you want improvements to pay, work rules, and benefits NOW! We are ready, and we believe opportunities will present themselves sooner than later.



The historical way that unions have conducted business does not mean we need to operate that way today.

I believe if you look back at how we handled the merger and different optimization teams, you will see a paradigm shift in the way your union leaders have conducted business. Being innovative and shifting to a solution based approach to problem solving has benefitted the Delta pilots over the last few years. As both sides recognize the issues, each side can introduce mutually beneficial solutions to the problem.



We have opened early. We know what you want for your new contract from the survey, crew room visits,

e-mails, phone polling, and the flight deck conversations. We are looking to engage the company in a comprehensive, expedited process. Let me be clear—we will not rush the final product. We concluded a comprehensive, expedited process for the JCBA during the merger. We can do it again for Contract 2012!

Vice Chairman’s Perspective: Traditionally, airline contracts are not reached by the amendable date; it takes months, and sometimes years, before an agreement is reached. The path of traditional labor posturing and corporate stalling often leads to financial damage to the corporation. Passengers book away and go to our competition, and when the handshake deal is made, we have to start the process again to win back the customers that left during the contract cycle. How many times can we read the same story? This is how it’s always worked, so is it in our best interest to continue a flawed process, or is it time to break the tradition and start a new one?



The right to strike and willing to do so is labor’s ultimate weapon to achieve the goals set forth by membership. I realize that there are some of you who feel that if we do not go through the whole process, we will leave money on the table and not get every penny. An agreement will be subject to membership ratification, and your MEC will not ratify an agreement and send it to you unless we believe it is the right agreement.



As previously discussed, you need to think like a CEO. You have to understand the needs of our business today and, better yet, tomorrow. By knowing where management needs the airline to be, you have to make assumptions about the airline business model. This is one powerful way to achieve leverage in this day and age. Management will always need something from labor, and that is where our leverage is the greatest. The key is to understand the wants and needs of management and convert them to our wants and needs in contractual gains.



Observe the things that Delta has asked us to participate in. The LGA slot swap is the most recent item that comes to mind. Management requested pilot help, and we delivered. Delta will benefit, but will our pilots? That is what many ask as to our dividend on being an active partner and a promise of better times was given initially and primarily to RJs. There will be other events on the horizon that we will be asked to participate in. For the good of Delta and our livelihoods, do we participate, and, if we do, what will be our level of enthusiasm?



So, Delta has the opportunity to start a new tradition. We are not just another line item expense, and our new contract is the first of all the legacies in a profitable post-bankruptcy era. Pilots are involved in helping reach the profitability needed to pay us market-leading rates. After all, the pilots have assisted in the most successful merger in history. We partnered with management to WIN in New York. We have also watched billions spent to upgrade facilities and a $100 million investment in a foreign airline. Is it our turn yet for upgrading our facilities (i.e., homes, cars, or simple funding of retirement accounts or our children’s tuition needs)?



Delta and the union often share mutual interests and goals. The flexibility and agility needed to pursue opportunities occurs better with stability. Labor peace allows Wall Street the confidence to lend money. These borrowed funds are needed to achieve the vision of this airline that our CEO has in a consolidating industry. His legacy of reshaping Delta, global alliances, and the rest of the industry will be recorded. Will it record the lost consolidation opportunities by a distracted management’s focus to save every penny on our pilot contract? For all that Delta pilots have done, do now, and will accomplish in the future, our time is now. The history on our next contract has yet to be written, but the choice is clear—contracts done traditionally or establishing a new tradition? Look at the counter at the bottom of our update to see which path management chooses.

Secretary-Treasurer Perspective: Contract openers have been exchanged, and we are in negotiations. The fact that both Delta ALPA and Delta management agreed to open the contract early is significant. It would be naive to say that the management team agreed to early openers out of purely mutual respect and the wish to reward us for our sacrifices! It is obvious to me that both sides of the table want something. For the pilots it is fairly obvious—we are no longer a bankrupt airline, and we want our contract to reflect that reality. As for management, their motivations are mostly conjecture until we see what they bring to the table, but I am confident that part of their motivation is labor peace and the ability to define a large variable in their financial picture for the possibility of participating in the next consolidation moves in our industry. Our job as an MEC is to negotiate to ensure that the pilot group is justly compensated for what they will, inevitably, ask of us in this early negotiation. Your job will be to evaluate what the MEC passes on to you when the negotiators tell us they have done their best—then vote accordingly!



I hope everyone has taken the time to read the “Opener” (see Negotiators’ Notepad 12-01) and noticed how many of the sections describe improvements while other sections are very nebulous. This is the proper way to start. It is my opinion that the MEC has given the negotiators enough specific direction that they know our parameters for those nebulous sections, and they will come back to us with a proposal that will meet the needs of the Delta pilots . . . your vote will ultimately decide. I am hopeful that the company is motivated enough to bring a proposal that will recognize our sacrifices and satisfy our pilots. In the event that they are not willing to do this, we are prepared to continue the full Section 6 process without any self-imposed time constraints. The most important stipulations our negotiators came back with regarding the early, expedited opener was the ability to just step back and continue the negotiations as a normal RLA Section 6 negotiation.



And now, the lighter side of our MEC discussions. After the important work comes to a close, and we can breathe a little easier, the discussions always come back to what and how we communicate to our pilots. It may seem trivial to some, but these discussions are also important and can become motivating for the MEC members and hopefully to the pilots as a whole. There were discussions concerning catch phrases and short “mottos” we could use to communicate with our pilots. We decided not to go with cute or pithy but went for a serious description. We didn’t decide on the phrase, “Leading the Industry” lightly. I look at this phrase as a direction and a long-term strategy, instead of a short-term fad to try to get our pilots excited and involved in today’s challenges. As a group of pilots from a wide range of backgrounds, today’s Delta pilots have been Leading the Industry for years. I won’t list the industry firsts we all have accomplished; I am sure others will do that for me, but be assured—we now need our contract to reflect that fact!



My personal goals are ambitious and optimistic. I am very hopeful that the DAL management team will recognize the pilot group as an integral partner in this company. That partnership means that they manage this airline to profitability, and we continue to be the professional pilots that make the operation work, while having a contract that acknowledges that fact. This recognition, through the right contract, will keep DAL and the DAL pilots “Leading the Industry” for a long time to come.



9 Days since the exchange of openers.

284 Days until Your Contract Amendable Date.

Bucking Bar

Either that, or a nationwide suspension of service by airline workers.

Not that I advocate such a thing, but the abuse of the RLA is truly out of hand.

IMHO, the RLA should be on someone's hit list for legislative eradication.

Bucking Bar

Is Southwest headed for a "Tran Wreck." Article with no research behind it, but it is funny to read Motley Fool bagging on SWA and Air Tran.

Is Southwest heading for a

Roadkill

Just got an I-phone 4S, trying to set it up with intent to use ICrewMax and access DeltaNet and Icrew etc. from phone. Are there any updates I should NOT get? That is, are there any downloads etc. as I set this up that will NERF my ability to connect to delta and make me unload/reload stuff?

Thanks.

Doug Masters

Thanks Rogue