You obviously don't pay any attention to my posts. I'm the guy always getting berated by the hard-liners because I take too reasonable of a stance on contract negotiations. The idea of wringing everything out of a company to the breaking point is not my style. No, I don't expect "something for nothing." But what I do expect is to not have to work harder than a Delta pilot to make the same amount of money. That's not industry-leading, bubba.
I most certainly DO pay attention to your posts. And my point is, that everything out of your mouth (or keyboard, rather) on this subject boils down to you trying to essentially make Southwest into an ALPA carrier. It's obvious that's all you know. You're not even on this side of the partition yet, you have no inkling of what life over here is like, and yet you clamour on about how screwed up we are, and how we need to be more like your ALPA-centric ideas. That's crap, and it's not going to happen.
-- You've referred to management on this board as "the enemy." That's a classic ALPA-ism. Management is not the enemy; they're our partners. Partners to be watched and kept honest to be sure, but partners nonetheless. Working together benefits both sides, and provides job security and benefits. ALPA? Not so much. Whether they actually understand that concept or not, they most certainly do not use it to their pilots' advantage. It's
always the idea of "us versus them."
-- You bemoan the lack of a B-fund, and spout numbers goals and gates that every carrier "needs to meet." Another ALPA-ism. Newsflash--we're not like that. People here think our system works better, and in fact it allows you to sock away a lot more for your retirement than an ALPA 15% B-fund. The numbers you ticked off were not only designed for a system where pilots do the least amount of work possible (which is not the way things work around here at Southwest), but were wrong anyway, since you made false assumptions and counted some money twice.
-- Most recently, you've been whining that now Delta has the industry-leading 737 contract, and we need to use that "fact" to leapfrog them. Another ALPA-ism: "The other guys have more now; we need theirs plus 1%." Besides the obvious point that that won't work here (they got raises by selling something we're not willing to sell--scope and job security), you seem to be the only one who thinks Delta now has the industry-leading 737 deal. Even the Delta guys on this board are only saying that they're new contract gets them "close to Southwest."
Above you also bitched that you didn't want "to work harder to make the same as a Delta pilot." Well, we don't. Even if their payrates were slightly above ours (they're not), due to our efficiencies, we
still would make more money for working the same number of days per month. Is that not good enough for you? Or is it too much to ask for you to fly more than one leg a day?
I just don't get you, PCL. I really think you should try to see things in other than ALPA-defined terms. At the very least, wait until you get on this side before you tell us all how ALPA ideas will make us "better."
Bubba