catiii wrote:The pilot group has lost touch with reality. The AA codeshare is not contingent on this vote and was previously approved in the summer. This LOA gave them a 2% raise and furlough protection in exchange for line value relief so fewer guys would sit reserve. But this pilot group wanted “profit sharing” which in the middle of a pandemic shows how they’ve spun off the planet.
The contract is amendable next year. That would have been the place to make a stand on profit sharing.
No. PS was only a minor item, and even if it was included, this still wouldn’t have passed. Section 1 (scope) relief was the big show stopper. TLV relief would fund the 2% pay “raise.” Funding your own raise isn’t much of a raise now, is it? Also, JetBlue pilots are tired of getting 2% raises as they did in the current CBA, when most other airlines have hd 3%. This 2% “raise” (again, self-funded) would put the 2022 B6 pay rates where legacy rates were in 2019. That is not enough to sway many. B6 pilots took less for their robust scope protections—and now the company and the union both tried to give it away for nothing, under the guise of “fewer people will sit reserve.” Yeah....ok. How many more? And how much money would the pilot group lose?
Also, just because a CBA becomes amendable, doesn’t mean 1) it will get amended and ratified anytime soon and 2) doesn’t mean pilots will be able to gain profit sharing, or any other items. Especially since they will have no leverage a year or two from now when their CBA is amendable. The company unilaterally took profit sharing away during the last CBA negotiations, before JetBlue pilots had a contract, which not coincidentally happened to be when they started becoming decently profitable. All JetBlue pilots want is their old formula back. Profit sharing would cost the company nothing right now. So how out of touch are pilots wanting profit sharing when it won’t cost them anything until they are profitable again? Historically, most good profit sharing formulas have come during bad times. JetBlue took away PS during the best of times because they didn’t want to share profits when profits were big. They took it away and simultaneously started buying back billions in stock. So basically pilots got the lowest pay, worst profit sharing, mediocre work rules, because scope was so solid. Now they want pilots to give it away for nothing, and not restore the previous PS. Nope.
The pilots want the company to succeed. But if they are giving up a major and sacred section of their contract (scope relief) to provide JetBlue with hundreds of millions (I think it’s actually in the billions) of additional revenue, then JetBlue management needs to get serious with their offer. Also, the pilot enforcement of growth metrics (not NEA metrics, but those from the B6 failed LOA) can’t be remedied until 2027 at the earliest if JetBlue isn’t compliant. That won’t fly for most pilots.
The termination fees from the NEA are far too high for JetBlue to back out. They need to renegotiate this, or they will get crushed by the arbitrator for violating scope in my opinion. That could also cost them. To successfully renegotiate, in my opinion, they need better raises, profit sharing to share the revenue NEA brings in, which is allowed only by the pilots giving scope relief, and to not allow 100% of international codeshare to go to AA. There also needs to be restriction on American eagle operating B6 code, as well as elimination or mitigation of the revenue sharing to protect B6 pilot jobs.
TL;DR, this is about much more than profit sharing.
Last edited by
JoseSalazar on Thu Feb 18, 2021 4:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.