Devils, Details, and Dollars

Pilots union negotiators at Delta Air Lines have finalized the language of a tentative labor agreement by which pilots in the employ of the Atlanta-based legacy air-carrier would receive an initial pay increase of 18-percent.

The tentative agreement is to be next considered by the Air Line Pilots Association at Delta, which will carefully review its contents for up to one week before determining whether the proposal merits a vote by Delta’s rank-and-file pilots.

If ratified, the new labor agreement—in addition to the immediate 18-percent pay bump—would afford Delta pilots additional pay increases of five-percent after one year, four-percent after two years, and an additional four-percent after the contract’s third year.

Depending upon seniority, aircraft, schedule, and numerous additional factors, yearly pay for Delta pilots ranges from $75,000 for starting first officers to more than $300,000 for high-seniority, wide-body captains. Subject figures are based on 75 flight-hours per month. Ergo, ratification of the proposed labor agreement would gross pilots atop Delta’s pay scale a tidy $54,000 payout.

Four years have passed since Delta pilots saw their last pay raise. That increase, granted in 2019, represented the culmination of labor talks that began in 2016.

Notwithstanding the new tentative agreement and the monies promised therein, Delta pilots—owing to the obduracy of the airline’s management—have missed out on major pay hikes the likes of those won by pilots at competing air-carriers in the aftermath of the COVID madness.

The negotiations upon which Delta pilots’ current tentative agreement are predicated got underway in 2019, but were halted on account of COVID policies.

Weary of protracted negotiations, Delta pilots staged informational pickets throughout 2022 before voting in October to authorize a strike in the event labor talks failed to move forward. The tactic appears to have compelled Delta managers to a tenor at once constructively circumspect and free of reticence and languor.

According to terms made public in conjunction with the inchoate agreement, Delta pilots stand to receive a one-time payment equivalent to 14-percent of their last year’s pay plus four-percent of whatever pay they received over the two previous years. The agreement further ensures Delta pilots enjoy pay rates at least one-percent higher than the wages of United Airlines and American Airlines pilots.

The pilots agreement would also bring improvements in holiday pay, vacation, 401(k) contributions and work rules. What’s more, it would allow pilots ten-weeks of paid maternity leave, two-weeks of paid parental leave, and reduced medical insurance premiums.

In addition to its pay and quality of life provisions, the deal would further restrict Delta’s use of regional jets—thereby limiting outsourcing to carriers wont to use lower-paid pilots. The proviso is controversial, however, and likely to be challenged by regional carriers on the basis it extends ALPA’s power beyond the union’s rightful purview.

ALPA nevertheless posits the nascent agreement will raise the value of Delta pilots’ larger pilot compensation package by as much as 45-percent. In December 2022, the union’s negotiating committee called the agreement a “generational improvement.”

On 13 January 2023, Delta Air Lines reported a 2022 profit of $1.3-billion. The carrier attributes the boon to strong, post-COVID demand for air-travel. Delta conceded that the language of the new tentative pilot agreement “recognizes the contributions of our pilots to Delta’s success.”

The leadership of Delta pilots union will meet next week to discuss the tentative agreement. Should the proposal be approved, the union will undertake a series of road-shows to explain the deal’s fine points to Delta’s pilot cadre prior to putting out the call for a general ratification vote.

FMI: www.delta.com