Thank you MikeM727 and others for your comments. First of all, I will have to disappoint you - I am an airline pilot (A320/1) and have no part whatsoever in Airline management.
Let me explain something to you anti-union morons. The pilot group has much more of a vested interest in the long-term success of the company than any member of management. We have 30-year careers to think about.
We are agreed then as we all claim we want to look after our future careers. I come back, however, to my original statement that money-in must exceed money-out in order to ensure long-term success. That is not the case in most US majors, particularly Delta. Someone has pointed out that the management was saying what a good deal had been achieved in the last pay round. They could hardly say anything else, but external analysts have all said it was over-generous. Frankly, though, that is irrelevant if the money is there to pay for it. Good luck to you if you have found a golden goose laying golden eggs. The problem is that the goose is having a heart attack!
The Delta pilot group will ensure our share of the pie, but will never do something to kill our company. We are not suicidal.
The pie does not exist - you are losing money hand over fist, and you have to recognise it. Sadly, I believe you are suicidal because you have forced a deal that is unsupportable. You are paid too much because your business cannot pay your wages. That is a straight statement of fact. It may be that there are many others including your management who also must cut their salaries, but if you do not act soon you will be finished.
I started life at the bottom as a bus driver (no, not an Airbus - a double decker bus) and was forced to join what was then the biggest union in the UK (TGWU) and I saw the unions at first hand. To you guys in the States, these were the days when unions ruled the country and were almost impossible to challenge. I was very pro-union then (and to an extent still am, subject to the common sense requirement that I have argued here). I saw union leaders go and demand all sorts of things, and have all kinds of restrictive work practices. For example a bus driver could not change a bulb in the bus, and the bus would be taken out of service for a day with all the lost revenue that would entail, until an electrician could be found. - only certain people could do certain things. Then surprise, surprise -one day the bus depot closed and all the drivers were unemployed because the revenue from the fare-paying public would not support the wages paid to the staff. It was a genunie surprise to everyone there, and none more so than the union leaders. They talked of management conspiricies etc, etc but the bottom line was the money was not there to pay the wages.
So, guys, where does that lead to? It is very simple - your companies are essentially insolvent. Your passengers are not providing enough revenue to pay your wages. Added to that you have restrictive practices (scope clauses etc. which, although well-meaning, limit the freedom of the company to operate the best business it can. There can only be one end to this - bankruptcy.
The US is more advanced than the UK in many areas, but this is one where we have been there before you. (I am a big fan of the USA by the way). We had our years of union madness and we are way past it now. Unions play a vital part in protecting the workforce from the worst excesses of management, but they must have a degree of wisdom. If anything we have gone too far back to the days of management power at employee expense, but the situation in US airlines is very unhealthy. The unions have not acted wisely on your behalf and need to get real.
I realise this is deeply offensive to many of you, and particularly to my colleagues in the States, and no doubt a tirade of abuse will appear. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. If you do not act now to assist in making your companies solvent then you will have no jobs. It is just that simple.