Sorry, but if what I've read is any indication, the new "average" if they are calling it that is much lower than the current industry average. Must be some funny math to take it from industry average ('cause it wasn't industry leading) in the JCBA to....well, "mid range" industry average with the concessions.
Before I start I don't want anyone reading anger into my post, I'm just flippant and matter of fact a lot more these days due to the situation The Man's got me facing.
Funny math? Math is pretty much just math. Pinnacle and Delta don't care about a pilot's pet section they care about how much money goes out the door, in other words, a total contract value. I wish I could convince them to keep my pay rate as it is because my health care costs are middle of the road but I can't. Maybe you can fly down to ATL and tell RA for me, he isn't taking my calls. While you are there tell RA it wasn't fair the Mesaba guys didn't get anything off the JCBA except status quo because Pinnacle and Colgan- 2/3 of the pilots on the list- wages were so abhorrently low.
I don't know where you are getting your numbers that the JCBA wasn't industry leading, in fact no one I've flown with on the Pinnacle side or in the training department can tell me how it failed them they just know. Going by their guts? Maybe that's a remnant of a negotiating strategy that left you all parked, giving Phil 15 minutes free on late blocking flights, and contract that was second worst in the industry by value. Cue the complaints that you're medical coverage was industry leading please and you got screwed out of that... you're right. You guys win. I have no idea what the individual pilot is going to call industry leading anymore. Apparently if it came from Mesaba it's not industry leading, if your 100th negotiating committee got you parked then I guess your industry leading in time spent negotiating. Done rationalizing, completely done. You wanna talk numbers talk numbers.
Pinnacle cost per flight were higher because of the JCBA rates and our higher longevity. The union breaks down the math a little for the pilot in the presentation, but the company and the union agree on the costing mostly. We always want to pretend we are the cheapest and don't get paid anywhere near our worth, but unicorns and pixie dust don't cover the bills. Pinnacle's cost projected for 2013 were the highest to Delta in DCI. Maybe ASA and everyone else would have sprung up out of nowhere and "raised the bar" with new industry leading (post concessionary) contracts. We'll never know.
I know I'm being more flippant than usual. It's a stressful time and I haven't got time to educated myself on what the union presents, the company presents, and everyone else's gripe in the industry with our TA.
The TA is worth more than the 1113c ask (#2). The pinnacle JCBA in 2013 would be a higher cost than ASA's concessionary contract. Ideally we wouldn't deal with this issue until next year or year after when everyone else has negotiated out of their crap concessionary contract. We will be liquidated by then. Delta is going to invest more than $200m in a company this isn't worth anything. Phil and his goons, followed by Menke and Spanky have run us into the ground hard. The good news, is Delta has indicated they will be gone if we vote yes to this TA. Make no mistake, this company is officially junk, and none of the three management teams did anything to stop that.
The pilots can still STFD if you want to , you just vote no. An intelligent negotiating group can't slam the fist on the table and say "to hell with it then." Well you can, you just can't be called intelligent. The negotiating committee is charged by the MEC to give us some sort of choice, and I support the MEC on that direction. The pilots of this airline still have a choice. Take a step back down to the TA rates, and pray that you can coast until hiring starts up at other airlines, or be unemployed in 6 months. On thing is clear, Delta has more than enough regional partners like GoJets to give away flying to. Delta wins, we lose, pattern bargaining is a failure when you don't have one contract and one list. Furthermore, we as regional pilots are failures. Until regional pilots get serious about one contract and one list going forward, this is all worthless conjecture. I know, it's easier to criticise the Pinnacle pilots for choosing to continue collecting a check and rationalize it at our costs becoming too high in a shrinking industry with no way out.
Delta doesn't seem to care a lot about how this thing turns out, they can always wind us down and give the flying to whatever airline they want. The JCBA that was industry leading for 2013 is a dead rate one way or the other as of Jan 15th. No one is going to be negotiating our old contract + $1. Don't worry, that's it. Blame us, don't, I don't care anymore. We aren't trying to maintain a contract anymore, this company is Tango Uniform. Thanks to management we have to start all over again, maybe we should have had more VP's and that would have fixed it, no idea. We are starting over from scratch with no cash and no value except for 41 -900 contracts and 410 jobs for pilots of Pinnacle.
/start long rant
The original management plan was to get our contract costs below GoJet's, this forums "dedicated members MVP" in the regional rat race because that union tag next to their name makes them a partner in the future. Our total cost will not be lower than GoJet's now, although I'm sure there's an argument that if all of our top guys left tomorrow then our total costs would go down. How much? No idea. Compass actually has the sweetest deal. Their contract total costs are low as hell because of their longevity so they could actually get paid wildly better and still have a contract total less than ASA and Skywest and this Pinnacle TA. THAT'S A NOTE TO EVERYONE WHOSE AIRLINE IS ABOUT TO LIQUIDATE, RUN TO COMPASS.
(We could probably get a pray raise out of the deal if the union would agree to simply cut ties with any pilot > 8 years seniority. Longevity and soft pay were the two biggest sticking points.)
The best part, is Compass's longevity starts all over again in 2014-2016. But Delta would never sell out more large RJ's for the regionals, General Lee told me so. So Compass won't be the strongest Delta partner for the next decade, unless Delta does continue to outsource large RJ's to regional land.
Some noteworthy pluses.
- Min day sticks around and the leg by leg (Big damn surprise, the soft money was the most contentious issue and it cost us the most to keep. Soft money > pay rates.)
- The profit sharing is based off 1st dollar made by the corporation, not whatever they spend it down to.
- Health care stays intact for the most part. Plan costs will increase some.
- We get a huge pay cut but most will enjoy some sort of $6,000 or more payoff to help ease the pain. Speaking as a man who went through a downgrade, that sort of cash payout makes life much more tolerable. Also, this TA paycut will be less than my downgrade cost me. Thanks again RA.
- Some relief on longevity, Delta classes to be made up of certain number of Pinnacle pilots each month. Eventually everyone can get an interview, and get a shot at Delta. Worst case it's still practice interviewing.
- 11 days off per month. New bidding system which still guarantees 132 days off a year
The bad's? Plenty.
- 9% paycut
- Delta will probably own us when this is over. Comair part duex. This is guesswork.
- Once we cap off on longevity, we will continue to slide down and off the map for industry average. Our contract will be held as the low standard, the benchmark for low cost and crap compared to everyone else. To Pinnacle and Colgan, this is familiar ground, for Mesaba lifers this is probably intolerable. There's no good news here, although it's likely the regional market will continue taking hits and concessions for many many years with Delta's loving hand directing our stagnation of wages. I would expect in 3 years every regional's cost to have completely stagnated due to Delta's pressure. Soon after the lowest costing regional to be based completely off how quickly their pilots can run to the majors and new blood come in.
- Open time at straight time unless the company offers higher pay themselves. HAHAHAHAHA
- Per Diem frozen at $1.70
- Vacation trashed
- Uniform pay gone, but 240 a year for something no one cares about anyway.
- Single Day for reserve gone.
- HRA, under company control. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Wait I haven't stopped holding my sides yet. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Yup, HRA is whatever the company wants... so get the OAP.
