Well this thread certainly took off while I was out on that trip...
Flying Sig, my point was that since the DALPA MEC was asking for preferential hiring, that means that any furloughed Delta guy gets head of the line priviledges here, and they as a group get first crack at all vacancies.
This isn't the first time that one of the MEC's has gone to the other and initiated a discussion about placing one pilot group's pilots on the other's list. The previous times however, it was the Comair pilot group approaching the Delta pilot group. The "group memory" here of the Delta MEC's response (i.e. submit a resume like anyone else and those of you who are qualified might get hired), whether or not that recollection is 100% accurate, has left some of the folks at Comair with a less than generous spirit now that the shoe is on the other foot.
My previous post was intended to point out that there is a lot of history at work here and that the DALPA phone message did not accurately reflect what transpired at the meeting. My report of the meeting is second-hand, so I can only say that the Comair MEC did not say "No" out of hand. It was more like a "Okay, besides the warm fuzzy feeling it will provide, what's in it for us? How about that seniority list combination issue we brought up with you guys before"? The Delta guys were the ones who said "No".
If their telephone message had reflected reality and hadn't been like my brother who used to tell my Mom that I'd hit him, without revealing that he'd hit me first, I probably wouldn't have even posted. It's self-serving and intended to unfairly deflect the dissatisfaction of the Delta membership from their MEC to the Comair pilot group.
As far as I'm concerned, I could care less how many furloughees get hired here or from what airline as long as they don't get some "super-seniority" deal that the USA guys got in their J4J deal, and as long as some of the practical issues as addressed (protection for the Comair pilot group against getting worked to death when recalls begin and we lose a chunk of furloughed pilots en masse). I have furloughed friends at UAL, Delta, AA, and US Airways and I'd love to see them find a place to work while they wait it out.