Delta pilots authorize strike

[alicia-w]

i meant that the amount of excess was collapsing, not the economy. (though i dont agree that the economy's "on fire"....)

[gtalum]

With US economic growth somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5% per quarter (that's 6% per year!) I don't see how you can say it's anything less than on fire.

[Brent]

A strike has been averted... for now. Details not known.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/8689315/detail.html

[nystate]

The economy is not collapsing. In fact it's on fire right now. It is, however, becoming more efficient, and that spells bad things for people who are overcompensated for what they do, like Delta pilots (and pilots at the other "legacy" carriers) for instance.

Overcompensated? Just like doctors and lawyers, right?

If you spend 15 years and $100,000 of your own cash to get somewhere, you should be paid a good salary.

Flight training is not cheap. The pilots who do it through the military also give up a lot in order to get to an airline career. Delta pilots should have gone on strike, killed the airline, and sent a message to the other legacies that excess pay cuts will not be tolerated.

[Brent]

Flight training is not cheap. The pilots who do it through the military also give up a lot in order to get to an airline career. Delta pilots should have gone on strike, killed the airline, and sent a message to the other legacies that excess pay cuts will not be tolerated.

OK... then how do you expect Delta to get out of bankruptcy and survive? They cannot continue losing so much money each quarter, and with rising fuel prices, it's not going to get better.

[nystate]

Flight training is not cheap. The pilots who do it through the military also give up a lot in order to get to an airline career. Delta pilots should have gone on strike, killed the airline, and sent a message to the other legacies that excess pay cuts will not be tolerated.

OK... then how do you expect Delta to get out of bankruptcy and survive? They cannot continue losing so much money each quarter, and with rising fuel prices, it's not going to get better.

Raise fares, park aircraft, cut management salaries, charge for food, drop unprofitable routes...

[fwbbreeze]

Flight training is not cheap. The pilots who do it through the military also give up a lot in order to get to an airline career. Delta pilots should have gone on strike, killed the airline, and sent a message to the other legacies that excess pay cuts will not be tolerated.

OK... then how do you expect Delta to get out of bankruptcy and survive? They cannot continue losing so much money each quarter, and with rising fuel prices, it's not going to get better.

Raise fares, park aircraft, cut management salaries, charge for food, drop unprofitable routes...

Wrong, you put an end to overpaid employees. Management has made large cuts in other areas now its time for the pilots to step forward. Oh and as far as the pilots striking, it would have killed the airline and the jobs of 40K others that are not pilots. Very responsible!!!

fwbbreeze

[nystate]

now its time for the pilots to step forward

They had a 33% pay cut a couple of years ago; this new pay cut would have pushed close to 50%. If whoever you worked for threatened to cut your salary in half, don't you think you would be a little bit irritated?

A strike would have killed Delta, but it also would have sent a powerful message to other carriers that they cannot trample on their employees like Delta has done.

[alicia-w]

so if health care gets too expensive, you expect nurses and doctors to cut their wages???? that's ridiculous.

so using your logic, govt spending can be cut by shaving the inflated salaries of govt workers? it just doesnt work that way.

[fwbbreeze]

so if health care gets too expensive, you expect nurses and doctors to cut their wages???? that's ridiculous.

so using your logic, govt spending can be cut by shaving the inflated salaries of govt workers? it just doesnt work that way.

your wrong, you are talking about a BANKRUPT company. Either the pilots agreed to the majority of the cuts or they dont have a job to return to. Let them leave and have to start over at another airline making wage minimums!! The pilots were NEVER going to strike and just did this to at least lessen the depth of the cuts. Professional Pilots are like professional ball players...way overpaid for the servieces they provide. And unlike professional ball players pilots are a dime a dozen these days.

fwbbreeze

[nystate]

Professional Pilots are like professional ball players...way overpaid for the servieces they provide. And unlike professional ball players pilots are a dime a dozen these days.

Probably the most untrue statement that I have ever seen here on S2k. Professional Pilots are like Doctors and Lawyers-they deserve good compensation for the time, money and work that they spent to get to their position.

Overglorified bus drivers? That is an argument that people often use, and it is completely untrue. Would you let a Paramedic perform heart surgery on you? In the same way I would never get on an airplane with nothing more than a bus driver up front.

Flying is a skilled occupation, and like it or not it isn't a career that just anybody can have. It takes decades to get up to 777 Captain at Delta, with tens of thousands of hours of flying experience required. The experience and training required is similar to that of a heart surgeon, so why pay pilots any less?

[gtalum]

Raise fares, park aircraft, cut management salaries, charge for food, drop unprofitable routes...

Delta cannot charge more than the so-called "discount" airlines on similar routes. it's been tried. it doesn't work.

They need to cut salaries, especially in the pilot group. Delta's pilots still make far more than pilots of all the other airlines. That 33% cut you talk about simply reversed a giant pay increase they had just recently received.

[Brent]

Delta cannot charge more than the so-called "discount" airlines on similar routes. it's been tried. it doesn't work.

and that's exactly why Southwest, Air Tran, JetBlue, and the others will continue to be profitable.

[alicia-w]

so if health care gets too expensive, you expect nurses and doctors to cut their wages???? that's ridiculous.

so using your logic, govt spending can be cut by shaving the inflated salaries of govt workers? it just doesnt work that way.

your wrong, you are talking about a BANKRUPT company. Either the pilots agreed to the majority of the cuts or they dont have a job to return to. Let them leave and have to start over at another airline making wage minimums!! The pilots were NEVER going to strike and just did this to at least lessen the depth of the cuts. Professional Pilots are like professional ball players...way overpaid for the servieces they provide. And unlike professional ball players pilots are a dime a dozen these days.

fwbbreeze

spoken like a true blue collar worker....

[nystate]

Delta cannot charge more than the so-called "discount" airlines on similar routes. it's been tried. it doesn't work.

Right. So they need to reduce frequencies on unpopular routes, increase their yields (load factors aren't everything, a plane full of discount-passengers doesn't make too much money), and maybe even park some more planes. Charging for food is another option.

and that's exactly why Southwest, Air Tran, JetBlue, and the others will continue to be profitable.

Southwest has their fuel hedged at low prices, which is why they have been doing fine during this economic period of high oil prices.

Delta can't be an Air Tran or a Jetblue. They tried that with Song, it didn't work. The airline is just to big, and a change towards the LCC direction is just too drastic. They just have to weather this storm and hope that oil prices drop again.

This whole thing is like a chess game; management has to think 3 moves ahead. Unfortunately, LCCs like Southwest and Jetblue have all of their pieces while large airlines like Delta are down to a few pawns.

[fwbbreeze]

so if health care gets too expensive, you expect nurses and doctors to cut their wages???? that's ridiculous.

so using your logic, govt spending can be cut by shaving the inflated salaries of govt workers? it just doesnt work that way.

your wrong, you are talking about a BANKRUPT company. Either the pilots agreed to the majority of the cuts or they dont have a job to return to. Let them leave and have to start over at another airline making wage minimums!! The pilots were NEVER going to strike and just did this to at least lessen the depth of the cuts. Professional Pilots are like professional ball players...way overpaid for the servieces they provide. And unlike professional ball players pilots are a dime a dozen these days.

fwbbreeze

spoken like a true blue collar worker....

you have absolutely NO idea what I do for a living and I don't appreciate the innuendo that somehow blue collar workers ideas are of less importance. I can assure you I am NOT a blue collar worker, although I do employ a great many of them and I respect their abilities, work ethic, and ideas. Pilots are not like doctors and surgeons....and they will be the first to tell you that. Yes there is more skill involved than driving a bus but even with the pay cuts they will be making significantly more than bus drivers. And they should that I am not arguing. Delta needs to become more profitable and cutting salaries(pilot and management) retirements and pensions is a good start. That an removing unprofitable routes from their system seem to be the only hope they have.

fwbbreeze

[gtalum]

Overcompensated? Just like doctors and lawyers, right?

let me know the next time doctors and lawyers call a strike.

If you spend 15 years and $100,000 of your own cash to get somewhere, you should be paid a good salary.

Flight training is not cheap. The pilots who do it through the military also give up a lot in order to get to an airline career. Delta pilots should have gone on strike, killed the airline, and sent a message to the other legacies that excess pay cuts will not be tolerated.

Tell it to the judge. There's a reason that the discounters have managed to thrive even as legacy carreirs are failing. It's lower costs structures. Fuel is the same, the main difference is in salaries.

[gtalum]

Right. So they need to reduce frequencies on unpopular routes, increase their yields (load factors aren't everything, a plane full of discount-passengers doesn't make too much money), and maybe even park some more planes. Charging for food is another option.

Newsflash: they've tried all these things. They've all failed. You can't shrink your way to profitability, and you can't nickel and dime your customers and expect success.

[gtalum]

Probably the most untrue statement that I have ever seen here on S2k. Professional Pilots are like Doctors and Lawyers-they deserve good compensation for the time, money and work that they spent to get to their position.

They deserve to make what they can negotiate and not a dime more. That's the breaks of choosing a union job.

I wish they would have gone on strike, but I knew it was all a bluff from the start. A few thousand more pilots flipping burgers might have saved the rest of the legacy carriers in the USA.

Overglorified bus drivers? That is an argument that people often use, and it is completely untrue. Would you let a Paramedic perform heart surgery on you? In the same way I would never get on an airplane with nothing more than a bus driver up front.

Actually they are worse than glofified bus drivers. Bus drivers actually drive buses. Pilots push a few buttons and then sit back and relax the whole way. Trained monkeys could do their jobs.

[alicia-w]

i do not agree that the health of Delta relies on the salaries of pilots. If the company is bankrupt, it isnt because they paid their pilots too much. It's because their management allowed the company to run into the ground. SO what if they go bankrupt. Yes, it will affect me directly but there is squat i can do about it. as for what they deserve to make... They DID negotiate a contract with Delta and Delta attempted to renege on it. That's what a threat of a strike is for, to draw a line in the sand and see what happens. It was indeed a real threat. The joke around here (because we have several airline pilots on military leave of absence) is that they have to pay to fly for Delta.

As for my blue collar comment, I didnt say you were a blue collar worker. I just felt you spoke insensitively about the needs of those pilots. Heck, if the pilots cant fly, those ground workers dont have any work either. Pilots ARE professionals and they ARE more than bus drivers. They have bills and families just like everyone else. Cutting their pay to keep the company solvent (like that would work) is BS. You obviously have no idea what it takes to fly an aircraft like that. Sure they have autopilot, but having worked on similar airframes for DECADES, those systems arent foolproof and do fail. A bus driver isnt responsible for the safety of hundreds of people, a pilot is.