I call bullsh*t.
Name me ONE time that has worked at AirTran. Just one.
If the management team was different and pilots could reasonably assume that management WOULD do the right thing, then sure, work together. Unfortunately here, management takes, then takes some more, then beats some more out of the pilots and takes that, too. Just look at the last year of contract reinterpretations, givebacks Philpot made in the interest of "working together" that we got NOTHING for, then they took even more in reinterpretations.
Without HARD SNAPBACK PROVISIONS built into any agreement AND concessions in ALL area of management compensation (base salary, bonuses, stock plans, ALL of it), any agreement should die. Hard. Noisily. Painfully.
The ONLY way the pilots at AirTran should even ENTERTAIN cuts is if management does the following 7 things IMMEDIATELY:
1. Rescind ALL policies that reinterpret existing contractual language to the pilot's detriment and settle all outstanding grievances on these reinterpretations. They want good will? They NEED concessions? Then THEY show good will FIRST by fixing their mess.
2. Fix SAP. Period. They screwed SAP up over a year ago. The time has long-since passed to fix it. Again, they want good will, THEY give good will FIRST.
3. Fix Scheduling. It doesn't work. For either party. Big screw-ups EVERY DAY in staffing because of the way scheduling works.
4. Management takes cuts similar to what you said above. First thing I agree with you on here. Their cuts must come from ALL parts of their compensation package. Their base compensation is only 20% of their total income - they take a 15% cut ACROSS THE BOARD as a show of LEADERSHIP.
5. Bring back the terminated pilots. ANY side deal negotiated in the last 20 years of airline history ALWAYS brings back hostages. Period.
6. Concessionary period has a HARD TIME LIMIT. They want 6 months, we give them 6 months. Period. They want more after that, they can come back and negotiate it again.
7. Any agreement has a snap-back provision that INCLUDES increases to COLA over 2005 pay rates. The first time the company posts a TOTAL yearly profit, our wages increase 3% per year from 2005, cumulatively. If it's 2010 when we next show a profit for the F.Y. 2009, then the wages come up 16% (cumulative 3% per year) from 2005 wages. This happens without ANY extra negotiations.
Without these provisions in place, you're just giving your position away to management and making it THAT much harder to negotiate in the future, as you give them a LOWER starting point than we already have. This has all happened before, why are we not learning from other airline's mistakes?
GOOD!
Now think of the above before you give them concessions without getting ANYTHING in return. All of the above are zero-cost items to the company except 7 and that only happens when the company is profitable again.
ALL AirTran pilots should HOLD THE LINE until an agreement that recognizes the sacrifices of the pilots is hammered out. If the company needs it bad enough, they'll deal. If they don't deal, then they really don't need it that bad.
The company comes up with a working business plan, fixes the worst of the grievances outstanding and fixes the basic Quality Of Life issues for the pilot group that are zero-cost items NOW, gives time limits and snap-back provisions on concessions, and THEN,,, MAYBE,,, after calm deliberation and, FOR THE FIRST TIME, working TOGETHER with the pilot group, they get their cuts to help everyone through tough times.
Until they show they can manage revenue, they can't show us a "reasonable" business plan.
