I'll keep that in mind when I'm doing my part to help them earn their Shared rewards pay outs...
As for CBA's, and their implications, if DL is going to abide by them while we're in laboratory conditions-and again, that's fine- then they need to do so completely. Not just when it suits them...
Kev,
Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe shared rewards are given equally to all DL employees in (or frontline at least) w/o respect to PMDL or PMNW.
You indicate that you would like to be able to participate in DL’s richer profit sharing payouts but did the PMNW ramp not receive from DL a payout that was contractually due them for concessions granted to NW during or shortly after BK?
Each individual will have to decide which compensation scheme – PMNW-union represented contracts or DL non-contract scales and benefits – provide the best compensation for their particular circumstance, including whatever future pay raises or profit sharing DL might choose to give its employees.
As you well know, the network/legacy carrier of the industry has had to make enormous changes to adapt to the brutal reality of the deregulated marketplace – and those changes have been felt by airline employees, esp. within the network/legacy sector more than among any other group.
Thus, one of the clear measures of success in the network carrier segment is the ability of companies to adapt and change to the new reality of air transportation – a reality that moves practically every year.
Delta entered deregulation much further down the pecking order among US airlines = not sure even if I remember but perhaps 5th or 6th place. Much of DL’s success has been because they have had management who has recognized opportunities and threats to its existence and who have managed to convince labor of the need to transform the business – ultimately to labor’s benefit.
While many rightly hail WN as a model of success particularly with regard to its labor relations, the reality is that WN has had to make few changes to its business model and even when those changes have been necessary it has never required sacrifices of the nature network carrier employees have made, esp. since much of that sacrifice in the network carrier segment has come because of needed reductions in the size of the business, something WN has never had to face.
But it is equally accurate to say that over the years DL employees have embraced their employers’ vision of where the company has needed to go and the company has rewarded the employees as good as if not better than the industry’s employees. DL pilots recognized the value of the 777LR and agreed to open new markets to the company – and new work opportunities for DL pilots – with hardly a discussion. The DL and NW pilots together recognized the value of the merger in creating a megacarrier and reached an unheard of agreement before the merger which allowed DL and NW to merge faster than any other merger has occurred and allowed the company and the employees to obtain those benefits also faster than has happened in any other merger. The speed with which DL transformed itself in the early 2000s – including its short BK by airline standards - rom an airline heavily dependent on connecting leisure traffic using widebodies on domestic routes to one that has been the world’s largest international airline shows how quickly change can happen when all parties cooperate. Indeed, even though the PMNW union contracts had specifications that specific aircraft types “belonged to NW’s represented employees” (and which similarly exist at other airlines), DL moved the 330s and 744s to JFK and ATL and the 777s and 767s to DTW and MSP in order to create more revenue opportunities for the company – and enhanced profit sharing for PMDL and PMNW employees, even though the representation issues weren’t settled. DL could have waited for the representation issues to be resolved or tried to use PMDL employees (other than the pilots who are already covered by the “fence”) to operate the three new DTW-Asia flights, but DL instead said that the aircraft are for the benefit of all DL employees, PMDL or PMNW, and DTW has gained a net of 3 new Pacific destinations that could not have been otherwise possible. DTW based PMNW employees, esp. FAs have clearly benefitted from the merger because DL didn’t “fence” aircraft or hubs but used all of the company’s resources where they most made sense.
In contrast, look at WN who is basically putting a fence around much of the FL ATL operation… protecting FL pilots but also restricting them from participating in the larger growth of the company.
It is this kind of flexibility that has allowed DL to prosper and which it has offered to the PMNW employees – offering compensation increases in return for increased flexibility.
Now since this is an AA aviation forum, we both can’t help but notice the significant deterioration that has happened to AA, historically a VERY WELL run company, IN PART (but hardly the whole reason) because AA has not had the flexibility to adapt to the changing dynamics of the airline industry that some of its peers have had.
While there are those AA fAAns who clearly would love to pretend that no one has figured out how to do it right, the evidence is overwhelming that labor friction has never resulted in a viable airline.
There are a whole lot of AA employees who know full well that the path their airline is on is unsustainable - and they are NOT willing to close their eyes to what works in the airline industry while they flush the investments of their careers down the drain.
DL and AF/KL saw months ago softness in transatlantic traffic and decided to aggressively pull down capacity this winter; some thought DL was failing by walking away from so many markets and so much capacity but DL used its flexibility to reduce headcount and shift resources around – and after this week which has seen dramatic change in the value of the dollar (which very much effects foreign visits to the US esp. during the winter) and the deterioration in even the strongest European economies, DL’s changes don’t look so dumb any more – and you as an employee will likely not have to pay for DL’s inability to adapt to the changing marketplace.
For much of deregulation, labor has paid a high price for airline mgmt’s inability to see or adapt to the changes in the marketplace. DL wants the freedom to ensure that you and other DL employees will no longer have to pay that price - and they are willing to reward you for that flexibility – both to pursue new opportunities when they arise and to withdraw from them when they no longer exist.
In an industry where change has often been painful and from which employees have rarely benefitted, I believe DL is succeeding at building a significantly different business model – to the benefit of the company and its employees.
Many other airline employees would love to be in the position of having to pay for the inability of the industry to adapt,
even if their fans would rather not hear about success.
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When the house is burning down, it is no longer time for "you might want to schedule a session to strategize on your departure from this edifice." Standing around and talking about how nice the neighbors are does no good when their house is burning down; if you've got to tell them that the only way out is jumping through the window and down 2 stories, then that is the news they have to hear - good, bad, or ugly.
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But you and I know that success doesn't sell newspapers... failure and scandal does.
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This forum might well have to close up shop if the failing companies in the industrty cease to exist.
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I look forward to the day when there is nothing left to talk about on the AA forum here because things are going so well.
