ryane946

Everyone has been talking about how contract 2000 will never come back. It makes me cringe when I hear that line. Allow me to post some 2nd quarter 2007 earnings numbers for the big carriers.


United: $274 million
Delta: $274 million (they posted a $1.77 Billion dollar gain but that is minus the $1.5 billion dollars related to bankruptcy reorganization)
Continental: $228 million

American, Northwest, and US Air still need to report. I predict American will top all of the numbers above, and both Northwest and US Air will post modest gains.


These companies all took a 30+% paycut, and at the bear minimum the negotiations should be to get back what you lost (Pay and workrules). I personally like where American's pilot union started (get our payrates reversed to what they were in 2002 plus inflation over the past 4+ years

Rocket Bob

Bear minimum or bare minimum? Regardless, after 70,000+ employees get their money back, AMR buys a few aircraft, and the economy goes south, it'll be time for concession talk. 274 mill in the best quarter of the year when times are good and every employee is making 40% less than they used to doesn't inspire confidence.

Flyby1206

AMR = $317 mil

floydbird

It takes a ~43% raise to replace a 30% paycut.

Just looking at United's results for the quarter, if you increase "Salaries and related expenses" by 43% across the board, and ALL the other income statement figures were the same, United would have reported a $164 mil. loss for this quarter, and last quarters loss would have been even higher.

This of course assumes accross the board raises for ALL employees-not just pilots. (btw UAL pilots took more than 30% paycut, so they would need way more than 43% raise to bring them back to "level").

CALPilotToo

If they show 274 believe me they blew 3 times that on buying things to show less profit. CAL made 190 mil plus which means they are probably making about 5 million per day.

They are buying and spending like crazy. The only mistake they made was not spending another 190 million last quarter to make it seem worse. Look at bonus thresholds. It is amazing how they just squeak in sometimes. It's nothing but a game.

ClipperJet

Unfortunately, The fact that the company made a profit in one or two quarters doesn’t mean the employees are entitled to a raise. Before you jump on me about the very real sacrifices everybody’s made, please note that I did say “unfortunately.”

“Buying things” doesn’t affect profit. That’s how you spend your profit, or “reinvest in the company.” Buying a plane is not an expense. You are simply trading one asset (cash) for another asset (airplane). It doesn’t affect net income. Yes, it’s way more complicated than that, but you get the idea.

The owners (stockholders) of the company are going to want the return on their investment. If all the profits end up going to employees, they’ll eventually decide to close the business, liquidate, and try something new with their money. You would too. How long will you keep you money in a poorly performing mutual fund? If they don’t make enough return, eventually you pull you money out of Fidelity and move it to Vanguard.

Demanding raises now will be suicide.