Here is a good one, good job JB

[daddysquared]

I've got two points of view regarding this article, and the Delta financial situation in general. Perhaps General Lee or someone else on the inside at Delta can offer enlightenment.

#1

Why is it that articles of this nature that mention how much pilots make, and consequently how much of a burden they are on the bottom line, never mention how much the executives make? Has it ever been presented by the pilots at these "meetings" that the execs make their own concessions? How much of a drag on the bottom line are management salaries?

#2

The pay scales I have seen show that pilots at Delta can indeed make a pretty big pile o' money. How much is enough? Now, certainly the answer is "as much as we can get", but seriously, if wages capped out in the $150K to $200K range, instead of the $250K to $300K range, wouldn't that still make for a pretty comfortable living? And would pilots accept pay cuts of this magnitude if the execs also took similar cuts in pay for the "benefit of the health of the company."

 

[General Lee]

daddysquared,

Some of the executives have taken a large cut--like Grinstein himself--down to $500,000 a year(compared to Leo's salary). But, he has been on the board since 1989, and he is very rich alone. I am sure most of the higher managment types have gotten stock options....

Yes, our pilots are paid very well, but you have to remember that we aren't saying NO to concessions at all. In fact, we started with a "low ball" offer, but are still willing to negotiate right now--which means we are not "standing tall" with that first offer. We are ready to continue to negotiate, and we allowed mid-contract talks--well in advance of our regularly scheduled talks. Grinstein wants close to 40% of our current contract, and he and his negotiators won't come back to the table.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[daddysquared]

Wow. 40%. That's pretty steep. So, if the executives are getting stock options in lieu of salary, is the same incentive being offered to pilots? I would imagine if they offered a pile of options with a buy price in the pennies, that it would make concessesions a little easier to bear, and it really wouldn't cost the company anything. Just a thought.

 

[General Lee]

Now just to be fair, I really don't know exactly if they are getting stock options, but I wouldn't doubt it. Grinstein is making less, and Jack Smith (former head of GM) is taking up another very high postion for even less (even though the CFO still makes over $1 mill a year and others are still higher also)---I would suspect that they aren't doing this for charity.

Management really hasn't offered anything like options---only pay cuts--about 30% in straight pay, and another 10% or so in QOL issues. So far---nothing else for any of the other non-unionized workers except health care premium increases and certain retirement restrictions---which we would have also no doubt, on top of our huge pay cuts. They claim that everyone else is at "industry standard"--even though most of our employees have very long tenure--and all make top salary in their "industry average" pay scales (at the top of the scale). I heard recently that Jetblue has their stews on three year renewable contracts (?), and our most junior stew after the furloughs has 8 years with the company---so our costs are a lot higher compared to most---and not only pilots. But, management also wants to avoid more unions coming to the property---and they will primarily target us because we have the only one.....

Bye Bye--General Lee