SWA contract amendable- no pay raise?

[viking737]

We're very aware of market conditions," said Carl Kuwitzky, vice president of SWAPA. Higher pay is "not a top bargaining objective."

 

[canyonblue]

There WILL be a pay increase, count on that.

 

[lowecur]

There WILL be a pay increase, count on that.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

imp:

 

[SNOWBUM]

there are way better ways to get a "pay increase " than hourly pay ".
for example , company pays for a "long term care insurance "policy ( 50% of us will use long term care, few companies offer it), extra 7 days of vacation, 1-1 match on 401k, b plan, better ( and cheaper) long/short term dissability & loss of license /medical insurance, cheap 10-20-30-35 year term life insurance, scheduling improvements to alowed for better QOL......

seems that SWA has alrady a good narrow body pay scale, as long as it keeps up with inflation there are way better ways to get an increase than hourly....thank good you guys are not ALPO

 

[HighSpeedClimb]

Southwest, pilots to talk amid growing cost pressure

Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:34am
NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co. will sit down with its pilots next month to negotiate a new contract to test the carrier's ability to respond to growing cost pressure.

Hedging fuel purchases has enabled Southwest to undercut most rivals with cheaper fares and still deliver strong profits. But with fuel hedges gradually unwinding, the leading U.S. discount airline faces the difficult task of reigning in already lean costs. "They're a company in great transition right now," said Stuart Klaskin, a partner at KKC Aviation Consulting. "It's going to be a tumultuous couple of years."


Rejigging its pilot contract, which becomes amendable on Friday, is key, because Southwest's pilots have become the highest paid in the industry after generous past contracts and the no-frills airline has few other areas to reduce spending.
"I don't know that they can go in and trim enough savings out of other areas to compensate and offset the increase in fuel costs," said Andrew Siebert, senior portfolio manager at Pittsburgh-based S&T Wealth Management, which manages over $1 billion in assets.
The fuel hedges will be hard to offset. Last quarter, the company booked $225 million cash benefit from its fuel hedges. Its net income was $333 million.
COST-CUTTING EXPERIMENTS

The upcoming contract negotiations, which are due to begin in the third week of September, according to the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association, come as the airline experiments with ways to trim costs.

That's tough to do, because Southwest is one of the industry's leanest operators. Last quarter, its cost per available seat, excluding fuel expenses -- a measure of airline efficiency -- was 6.68 cents per mile, almost a penny less than competitors American Airlines and United Airlines In recent months, Southwest has tested new scheduling options in an attempt to get its pilots -- already the most frequent flyers in the industry -- to fly even more hours. That experiment, however, led to an unexpected increase in pilot overtime costs last quarter, the company said.
Southwest is also installing drag-reducing winglets on over 400 planes, a move it expects to save over $50 million in fuel costs this year. Meanwhile, the discount airline is experimenting with assigned seats rather than its general seating free-for-all. While such a move would add costs, it could also allow the airline to charge a premium for an assigned seat and generate additional revenue, said Klaskin.


The company has also raised fares at least twice this year in response to rising fuel costs, but the strategy is problematic for a company that likes to call itself the "low-fare leader."
POSITIVE ATTITUDES

Southwest has historically had strong relations with its employees, and there are few signs that talks with pilots will become adversarial this time.
"We're very aware of market conditions," said Carl Kuwitzky, vice president of SWAPA. Higher pay is "not a top bargaining objective." "Attitudes seem pretty positive so far," said Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis.

Southwest's pilots are the highest paid in the industry after legacy carriers like United and American cut wages after the Sept. 11 attacks led to a long recession in the airline industry. According to JPMorgan, Southwest pays its pilots $186 an hour. American is the next highest at $161 an hour. But with the extra pay also comes extra work. Southwest's pilots fly on average about 20 percent more than other airline pilots, according to SWAPA.

 

[goahead]

I would work for SWA for 50,000 a yr forever just b/c it would be nice to work for someone where people are happy to go to work.
hahahaha....

 

[canyonblue]

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

imp:

uke: uke: uke:

:smash:

 

[Green]

This one will be interesting. Getting more productivity out of SWA pilots will be like squeezing blood out of a turnip. Hope you guys/gals get something. Good luck...

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

Well.

Lets see here..

If i would have to guess i would say the folks that believe that a raise is in order here are the very small minority.

The most often discussed items or mostly contract lanquage and quality of life issues like reserve and vacation pay/days.

PBS is getting alot of ear time but nothing solid yet from the company.

For me the pay/compensation is fine.What i want is a contract that can be understood and not have some many loop holes that are subject to interpretation.

But eveything has a cost..And its what you want the most and what will cost the least to the company..

Mike

 

[FlyBarneyJets]

For me the pay/compensation is fine.What i want is a contract that can be understood and not have some many loop holes that are subject to interpretation.

Good post.

I'd like to see a reasonable COL increase, perhaps.

PBS is a no-vote for me. I've seen it in action at my last airline, and I believe that Wbid gives us virtually the same functionality. Company probably wants PBS to reduce the costs associated with vacation and overlap, which is understandable. Where's the middle ground? I have no idea.

Productivity-wise, I think the company has seen the effect of recently increased line "productivity." Cost has increased since current lines make it difficult for pilots to pick up open time, which caused junior manning to increase and reserves to be mis-used. At least that's what a SWAPA-dude said in our jumpseat the other day. There's not much they can do with that besides decrease each line's productivity slightly to encourage open-time pickup.

Smooth out the reserve rules. No shifting of AM reserves to PM trips (or verse-vice-a) in the middle of their reserve days. Unsafe, IMO.

A good contract is one where both sides walk away from the table saying "Yeah. I can live with it." I forget who originally posted that somewhere here, but I liked the saying then and I like it now.

I'm a new guy, but I'm hoping things go amicably.