Here is a gift to the pilots and unions of UPS and FedEx.
It is a gift because I am going to say what your union and strike committee cannot legally say while you are in a status quo. Do not mistake their silence for indifference.
The comment below was directed toward a message board thread relating to an annual Christmas dinner, but the specific management trigger is irrelevant.
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Forgetting the Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner (during negotiations) is a typical company strategy. It is just a tiny seed planted in your minds as part of the psych-warfare, used to wear on you and your family during negotiations. Their ploys must always be subtle and deniable. Their purpose is to modify the pilot group’s behavior and reaffirm that it is management that has control and runs the company.
For example, the Christmas dinner omission (even if they put it on at the last minute) is something that frustrates, causes dissention, but can backfire if the group becomes too upset. Less and less often companies are 'taking a prisoner' during negotiations because it had the opposite of the intended effect....it unified pilots rather promoting fear and splintering. (Those that still employ this technique have learned to select either a weak or unpopular victim.)
The previous exchange on this board regarding Over Time is common. "Don't do it" versus "The Union didn't say that." Not to pick on the guy who said the latter because I don't know him or his situation, but the people that usually say this are usually naive because they are new or know better and are just being financially selfish. Your MEC or EBoard won't say it...legally they can't say it if they are in status quo but THEY SHOULDN"T HAVE TO!!
It should be clear to everyone that when your union is in negotiations with your company, the company is not your friend. They want to save as much money as possible and you want to get as much as possible. In the end it will come down to cost....when it costs more to delay than to settle, then they will settle. So "You don't do the company any favors." What does this really mean? Don't carry gripes at a through station, no intersection departures, don't ask for direct routing, No overtime or being available for junior manning, block out "on time"-- not early, if you have a 2 hour reserve call up - be there at 1:59 not in 30 minutes, if you are sick outbased-then you are sick, etc, etc.
BUT do yourself and your union a favor and don't put a target on your chest. Taxiing slow, writing up stupid gripes, and refusing direct routing when offered by ATC is all trackable. Don't distract your union's efforts by making them defend you because you were stupid.
When the deal is signed you can go back to being a patriotic employee and giving them 110% effort, but until this conflict of interest is resolved, they only get 100% of your effort.
This does seem quite childish and inefficient does it not? So why do both sides go through this one might ask. Of course it all comes down to money. Forgetting the huge cost of benefits and the impact of a scheduling change that might lead to just one extra day off per man, per year; let's just look at salary. Multiply the number of pilots by your estimate of the average income with overtime. Now what is just 1% of that? Answer: Millions and millions of dollars. So the company is very motivated to wrestle over the last quarter point. They are also very motivated to DELAY as long as feasible. Let's say you have an adjustable rate mortgage and rates go up 2%. Your banker calls up and says your $1500 payment is going up to $2100, but because he likes you, you have the option of delaying the increase for 2 years with no penalty...are you interested?
Just as every percentage point is huge to the company, it is just as important to you. You might say 1% of $150,000 is $1500. And that divided by 26 is only $58 per paycheck...Whoopty-Do. But wait a minute, you just figured the numbers backward, not going forward. The company WILL desperately try to get you to sign off on a "signing bonus" instead of a "retro pay." They may even offer a signing bonus that is equal or higher than retro pay. What's the difference right? Let's just get a deal done.
But wait a minute you are about to make a $200,000+ dollar mistake. If you are moderately skilled with a spreadsheet, take your current FO pay rates and look back to your contract’s amendable date, add 4 or 5% pay raises per year. Now project forward for the remaining 20-25 years of your career using today's rates versus the retro'd rates with a 4-5% annual escalator. Don't forget to incorporate your upgrade at some point. If you add the difference of the two columns over your career, you will find accepting a signing bonus instead of retro pay just cost you $100,000 to $300,000 depending on pay rates, age and upgrade time.
Do your part to get negotiations over as quickly as possible, so you and the company can get back to working together.
Copyright 2005
GoABX
It is a gift because I am going to say what your union and strike committee cannot legally say while you are in a status quo. Do not mistake their silence for indifference.
The comment below was directed toward a message board thread relating to an annual Christmas dinner, but the specific management trigger is irrelevant.
================================================
Forgetting the Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner (during negotiations) is a typical company strategy. It is just a tiny seed planted in your minds as part of the psych-warfare, used to wear on you and your family during negotiations. Their ploys must always be subtle and deniable. Their purpose is to modify the pilot group’s behavior and reaffirm that it is management that has control and runs the company.
For example, the Christmas dinner omission (even if they put it on at the last minute) is something that frustrates, causes dissention, but can backfire if the group becomes too upset. Less and less often companies are 'taking a prisoner' during negotiations because it had the opposite of the intended effect....it unified pilots rather promoting fear and splintering. (Those that still employ this technique have learned to select either a weak or unpopular victim.)
The previous exchange on this board regarding Over Time is common. "Don't do it" versus "The Union didn't say that." Not to pick on the guy who said the latter because I don't know him or his situation, but the people that usually say this are usually naive because they are new or know better and are just being financially selfish. Your MEC or EBoard won't say it...legally they can't say it if they are in status quo but THEY SHOULDN"T HAVE TO!!
It should be clear to everyone that when your union is in negotiations with your company, the company is not your friend. They want to save as much money as possible and you want to get as much as possible. In the end it will come down to cost....when it costs more to delay than to settle, then they will settle. So "You don't do the company any favors." What does this really mean? Don't carry gripes at a through station, no intersection departures, don't ask for direct routing, No overtime or being available for junior manning, block out "on time"-- not early, if you have a 2 hour reserve call up - be there at 1:59 not in 30 minutes, if you are sick outbased-then you are sick, etc, etc.
BUT do yourself and your union a favor and don't put a target on your chest. Taxiing slow, writing up stupid gripes, and refusing direct routing when offered by ATC is all trackable. Don't distract your union's efforts by making them defend you because you were stupid.
When the deal is signed you can go back to being a patriotic employee and giving them 110% effort, but until this conflict of interest is resolved, they only get 100% of your effort.
This does seem quite childish and inefficient does it not? So why do both sides go through this one might ask. Of course it all comes down to money. Forgetting the huge cost of benefits and the impact of a scheduling change that might lead to just one extra day off per man, per year; let's just look at salary. Multiply the number of pilots by your estimate of the average income with overtime. Now what is just 1% of that? Answer: Millions and millions of dollars. So the company is very motivated to wrestle over the last quarter point. They are also very motivated to DELAY as long as feasible. Let's say you have an adjustable rate mortgage and rates go up 2%. Your banker calls up and says your $1500 payment is going up to $2100, but because he likes you, you have the option of delaying the increase for 2 years with no penalty...are you interested?
Just as every percentage point is huge to the company, it is just as important to you. You might say 1% of $150,000 is $1500. And that divided by 26 is only $58 per paycheck...Whoopty-Do. But wait a minute, you just figured the numbers backward, not going forward. The company WILL desperately try to get you to sign off on a "signing bonus" instead of a "retro pay." They may even offer a signing bonus that is equal or higher than retro pay. What's the difference right? Let's just get a deal done.
But wait a minute you are about to make a $200,000+ dollar mistake. If you are moderately skilled with a spreadsheet, take your current FO pay rates and look back to your contract’s amendable date, add 4 or 5% pay raises per year. Now project forward for the remaining 20-25 years of your career using today's rates versus the retro'd rates with a 4-5% annual escalator. Don't forget to incorporate your upgrade at some point. If you add the difference of the two columns over your career, you will find accepting a signing bonus instead of retro pay just cost you $100,000 to $300,000 depending on pay rates, age and upgrade time.
Do your part to get negotiations over as quickly as possible, so you and the company can get back to working together.
Copyright 2005
GoABX
