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.
Particularly Delta? Delta has been reporting record profits for several years now. Where have you been? Because of the dip in the economy and the 9/11 events, we are in a
temporary revenue crunch.
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.
Pro-business publications are, by nature, anti-labor. They will always say labor costs are rising. Guess what, all costs rise...it's called inflation. Why should my salary be exempt from that? The price of bread rises with inflation and it just part of life. But a pilot's salary rises with inflation and he's a greedy bastard who is going to ruin the airline industry. Since 1980, the average pay of working people increased just 66 percent, while CEO pay grew a whopping 1,996 percent. According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major corporation made 42 times the average hourly worker's pay in 1980, 85 times in 1990 and a staggering 531 times in 2000. Give me a break. Who's the greedy one?
The problem is that the goose is having a heart attack! ... The pie does not exist - you are losing money hand over fist, and you have to recognise it.
Don't be so over-dramatic. My goose is a little hungry now, but the future is bright. Our CEO says by July 1, traffic will return to pre-9/11 levels. Goldman Sachs predicts a
full year profit for Delta in 2002. That is even considering the economy, and the "over-generous" pilot's contract.
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.
The facts are this: Our management team, AND financial analysts have determined that Delta can and will make a profit,
while paying our wages. Yet somehow you know more than our CEO and the analysts? How arrogant are you?
Your little story on unions is exactly 180 degrees out of phase with reality. The European socity is far more socialist and labor-friendly than the US. The US is far more capitalist and pro-business. Unions don't have nealy the leverage over here that you might think. If we did, why are we barely keeping pace with inflation?
The pilots have our own financial analysts. They tell us what the company can afford, while still allowing them to profit, grow and prosper. If they were wrong, we'd get rid of them ASAP. This is our company we're taling about here. It was our before Leo Mullin was here, and it will still be ours after he leaves. WE are the ones with the long-term vested interest, not Leo. When we seek a contract, we seeks wages and quality of life, but we balance that with productivity. That's what our trip rigs and duty rigs are about. It forces the company to build productive trips. When we go to work, we want to be productive, not just sit around. I am familiar with unproductive unions...I worked around the IAM at TWA. They were terrible. DALPA is not that way. We are arguably the least militant union in the industry. We've never struck, and our work rules are for more productive than others. When our financial analysts tell me we need to make concessions, we will. We have done so in the past, and may have to again in the future. But so far our analysts, hell not even our own CEO, has stated that they need concessions. So why am I going to give them up...based on some guy on an internet forum? Yeah right.
But the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
That's right, and the pudding is the bottom line. The bottom line shows that we have made record profits for several years. This year we won't make a profit. We had the Comair strike, softening economy, and 9/11. Absent those extordinary items, it would have been another profit. Still, the sky is not falling, and neither is Delta. We will be profitable once again in 2002, and that's the proof of the pudding.