AA pilots have voted to authorize a strike. WN pilots are completely right to ratchet up the pressure on management to get a deal done. Southwest among the big 4 is especially challenged to come up w/ revenue to pay for a big new pilot contract because they do not have the international longhaul revenue that is seeing great strength for AA DL and UA.Īdd in the delays getting the MAX 7 delivered to Southwest and the ongoing costs and bookaway from the December operational disaster – all the result of management decisions. Other airlines simply do not have the business plans to be able to generate that kind of money and still generate good profits. The low cost carriers competed for pilots with regional airlines and moved first to sign new contracts w/ their pilot unions as regional airlines started dramatically increasing pay.ĭelta was the first of the big 4 while American, United and Southwest have been very slow to come to agreement the terms of the Delta contract were known almost 6 months.Īt a cost of $1.75 billion more per year above the previous pilot contract, the Delta contract is very expensive. These aren’t the workers that, say, Cesar Chavez fought for.ĭelta management and pilots realized that the current pilot shortage means there has to be a supply of pilots in order for an airline to have a future. They present as uniformly older, white, and wealthy. Somehow pilots think public demonstrations make them look good and put pressure on the company. United’s pilots are demonstrating as well. And Delta agreed to a record-breaking contract that’s putting pressure on the rest of the industry.Īmerican’s pilots have already voted to authorize a strike even in the face of being offered a 21% pay increase in the first year and 40% by the fourth year of the deal, up to $590,000 per year. But their salaries don’t reach the level of those who fly widebody aircraft to far-flung destinations they way they do at United, Delta and American. Southwest Airlines pilots are well-paid for the work that they do – flying Boeing 737s on relatively short stage-lengths. But the authorization vote, sold as avoiding a strike by making a contract more likely to happen, does make a strike more possible. A strike authorization vote can’t turn into a strike without the National Mediation Board first triggering a ‘cooling off period’ before employees are authorized to engage in ‘self-help’. And the negotiations take on a logic of their own. But it is a procedural hurdle that makes a strike more likely. Of course they voted yes thinking it doesn’t really carry force, it just helps get an agreement done. Once a union calls for strike authorization, members have to go along – otherwise the union’s credibility implodes and the company knows there isn’t a strike threat looming in the background. It’s a threat to the company to get them to give more in negotiations. This was largely pitched to members as negotiating leverage: vote to strike so you don’t need to strike. 99% of pilots casting a ballot voted to authorize a strike.
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