Delta Pilots Vote To Authorize Strike

[babylonsister]

http://www.thechamplainchannel.com/travelgetaways/8461531/detail.html

Delta Pilots Vote To Authorize Strike

POSTED: 12:16 pm EDT April 4, 2006
UPDATED: 12:22 pm EDT April 4, 2006

ATLANTA -- Pilots with Delta Air Lines voted on Tuesday by a wide margin to authorize a strike.

The pilots are angered by management's effort to throw out their contract to allow the bankrupt carrier to impose deep pay cuts.

The vote of 94.7 percent in favor of authorizing a strike gives union leaders the ability to set a strike date. Union leaders did not do that immediately and gave no indication exactly when they might act.

The results were announced in a memo to pilots from the chairman of the union's executive committee.

An arbitration panel must decide by April 15 whether to void the pilots contract. The union has said it will strike if its contract is rejected.

The nation's third largest carrier, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has said a strike would put it out of business.

[LostinVA]

1. Remember that most pilots make very little money

Some even qualify for some public assistance. Yes, I'm serious.

But, HQ people always blame this stuff on the pilots and flight attendants... and never answer why Southwest, Jet Blue, etc. do pretty good business and stay in healthy shape...

[xultar]

2. You are right. Very few make the big bucks.

The pilots for those regional airlines make very very little money and the flight attendants too.

[babylonsister]

3. You're joking, right? Public assistance?

Never happened. I'm not saying these pilots don't have a case, but they're not exactly poverty-striken.

[xultar]

4. The regional jet pilots for like ASA, United Express etc....make less

The only pilots that make $$$ are the pilots who fly the big jets.

[babylonsister]

5. That makes sense; the story referenced Delta pilots, who make

some nice change as they fly nat'l/int'l. I don't honestly know what regional airline, if any, they run.

[LostinVA]

8. Doesn't matter what regional lines -- it's the size of the plane

They fly lots of small commuter planes -- those are the pilots that usually make less than $20k a year.

Of course DElta Management only mentions the few big bucks pilots...

[LostinVA]

7. No, I'm dead serious

Michael talked about this is on of his books,a nd i did some investigating. The majority of pilots don't make a lot of money. Quite a few of the "commuter" pilots make between $16-$20k. That's it. Some companies make them sign documents saying they won't go on public assistance (food stamps, etc..)

So yeah, some of them aren't that far away from poverty-level...

[saigon68]

6. HOW ABOUT IT CAPT MAC?

WHASSS UUP?

[wakeme2008]

9. Go for it :)

Every time Delta has asked the pilots to take a pay cut they have.

IMHO there is a problem at Delta and it isn't the pilots pay.

[Rainscents]

10. I am with pilots on this one!

It seems like, corporates wants to take and take from the little guys, but nothing back in return, except kick in the ass.

[readmoreoften]

11. 18% pay cuts? Trust the workers.

You just can't let management get away with that kind of nonsense. If the company is broke, then let it go belly up. But as long as the execs are making big bucks than the workers should be paid fairly. No one in their right mind wants to strike.

Let me repeat that:

NO. ONE. WANTS. TO. STRIKE.

Striking your labor is one of the most stressful things you can do, particularly in this anti-labor era. You face constant insults from your employers. They hire union busting firms like Jackson-Lewis to smear your name and make you seem crazy and greedy. You face economic hardship. Your life becomes a series of high-emotion meetings. You are forced to pace in circles on the picket line for hours and hours a day.

Striking is much more than taking a vacation from work. Take it from me, I've been involved in a bitter strike for five months now.