not to get too much side tracked here.. but.... wn is a heavily unionized workforce and they have mgmt/labor relations and yet they have a high paying workforce with a top out near or in the 27 or 28 an hr range
it's not a side track at all.
There are people on here who have used WN as an example of a company that is heavily unionized and there employees benefit.
Tell me, though, how many unions Google and the IT companies have at their HDQs in Silicon Valley. I don't think they have a single one - and they have outstanding benefits and pay.
Why do they do it? because they recognize that if you treat people well and provide a strong compensation package, you will get an above average group of employees.
Each of those companies are also financially strong companies.
I'm not sure why it is so hard to understand that DL and WN have both taken the same approach as those IT companies. They run strong businesses, generate above average financials which industry analysts recognize, and they are willing to pay their people above average.
Unionization has nothing to do with a desire to treat employees well with the expectation that they will deliver outstanding customer service and creativity and unionization doesn't change whether the employees get more or less. In fact, unionization creates a mindset of fighting by labor to get whatever they can.
WN is in negotiations with nearly all of its workgroups and even WN's own employees confess that they are not getting the goods they want and the process is being drawn out. DL employees in the same space of time have received multiple pay raises
It isn't a surprise that DL employee pay was above average for most of the regulated era, fell during the first 30 years of deregulation when DL struggled to figure out what it was supposed to be under deregulation, and has increased since BK when DL has had a laser-like focus on running its business which is both profitable and beneficial to its employees.
Meanwhile, even though carriers like US have reached similar levels of profit margins post BK, US employees have not shared in US' financial success anywhere close to what DL employees have.
DL's overall business success and for its employees is no different than what WN has. WN just happens to be largely union but the same heavily unionized workforce at other carriers has produced far less benefits than for either DL or WN employees.
