I don't think the worry is about what mgmt wants to do. They would love to have a Texas Air type operation. Dal=Cal and Nwa=Eal. That way when the Nwa employees provide the expected reaction, the absolute meltdown of the airline they break off the pieces they want and trash the rest. Easy way around our section 1. Now the part which is a little more disturbing is our Dalpa brothers siding with mgmt in their little scenario to get a leg up on us. Just shows how little brotherhood that there really is and I believe that the MAJORITY of pilot at Dal know this is underhanded they will stay silent. They are being used by the money men, but their greed and feeling of power is too intoxicating. I would like to see natl. come out against this, however Prator is in the posistion he is in do to the above cal/eal deal.
That's a very NWA pilot biased POV, and you may be right about your interpretation. If so, that would be wrong and natl should stop it. However, the Delta pilot biased version has the NWA MEC trying to pad the combined list with Delta pilots to be furloughed primarily because of the parking of DC-9's and 747-200's. If true, that is equally as "unbrotherly" as the theory you are proposing. If in fact that version is true, the Delta pilots as well as natl would have no other choice but to do what it took to insure that any furloughs from either pilot group were represenative of the percentages of each respective fleet being parked that were responsibile for the furloughs in the first place.
That's 100% fair to all concerned, as there is no moral justification for stacking parts of someone else's seniority list below you to just to absorb furloughs from your side of the fence. Furthermore, if its true that the NWA was demanding super seniority because of retirements (that aren't happening in full force), the mighty 747 (which pays less than 2 other aircraft at Delta), phanton 787's (which pay 2 bucks an hour more than NWA 757 rates, and considerably less than Delta 757 rates), and full credit for 9's and -200's that are obviously on the chopping block to a large degree because of the fuel crisis we're in the middle of.
That version then add that the NWA MEC was using the threat of inevitable arbitration to "go for it" along those lines. While in theory its great for everyone to passionately argue their POV in an arbitration, its likewise not very palatable to be in arbitration arguing for a fair outcome when the other side is trying to rape you, with the safety of knowing a fair outcome is the worst they can likely expect.
Add to that the fact that about 2 billion dollars from management was wasted away by this stalemate, and add to that the fact that most of that money would have gone to the NWA pilots in the form of bigger raises and better work rules, as well as the fact that the NWA PWA also requires an eventual combining of operations anyway, and it doesn't seem so unreasonable for the Delta pilots to give up some parts of their contract (that were going to go away post merger anyway) to facilitate a merger that's going to happen anyway, and try to at least get a portion of the original incentive they were offered. If that's how it happenes, you would likely get much of that too, when your pay and work rules were brought up to theirs anyway.
So as you can see, the two different versions differ radically. Everyone thinks their version is right, but both can't be. All I'm saying is that it would be disgusting if Delta pilots tried to take your planes and growth in a backroom deal with management, but it would be equally disgusting if NWA tried to stack the list with Delta furloughs because of parked NWA planes. Which version is it? If we ever truly know, it may not be for a while.
