Thanks. Temporarily lost my cool
Have lots of Dal friends and most know about as much as we do, which is not much. None, I repeat none act like some of the posters here. Anywho, are you going to be in Phx in May for the seminar? If so, I will buy you a beer at the complimentary social :beer:
What are you losing your cool about? How about you Occam? What seems to be the problem. Let's try a different approach, clear the board.
1) Can we agree that the merger is going to happen? With or without us, can we agree on that? I would agree that whomever posted our chair can stop any merger was correct to a point until the powers that be are going to lose too much money.
2) If you answered yes to #1, can we agree that going to arbitration is a huge unknown for everybody? As such it is not a good idea for either group. I cite 2 things, the last arbitration went very bad for date of hire, I cite that I do not know the last time an arbitration went date of hire. If yes, continue
3) Can we agree that there is a lot of mistrust, perhaps trust-but-verify, on the part of the NWA pilots toward their leadership? As such, that in itself slows the process down, and may all but sabotage it completely. If yes, continue.
You guys need to get over this "bow down to Delta pilots", "we won't succumb no matter what", "we will make everyone miserable" stuff. You can believe what you want of course, but our MEC is deciding today whether or not to alter our contract in order to allow this merger with separate operations. As incentive, there is going to be an increased compensation package. While you have been running around throwing barbs that this is an anonymous board, and nobody could possibly be right about any of the information posted, we have been. It's coming. You can now decide how you are going to handle it. Before you start seeing red, let me add a few other things: I have already read that you will undercut our rates, do you not think that our MEC--who has been waaayyy ahead in this process--wouldn't think of that and institute a protective process? Do you think that it is possible that the remaining DC-9s might just start going away, and Compass may be reduced with the assets brought over to another DCI carrier? Is it possible that the pressure to integrate the lists might already be figured out and starting to be applied? With regard to 100 seat scope, I wouldn't bet for a second that our team would allow it, unless it includes the provision to allow Comair to be a flow-up/flow down type of Compass operation. That would indeed solve our Comair issue. I think even that is a long shot, though, and would garner a "no"vote from me unless they were tacked to the bottom of the list.
I appreciate that you guys consider yourselves such "true unionists". Sometimes I wish our group was a bit more militant. Nonetheless, we are where we are. Our chair and MEC already have a great relationship with RA. I have been here a long time, and I have been through more than a couple CEOs. This CEO and board have been the single most impressive in my tenure. They have finally showed some vision instead of reacting to what's thrown at them. The next round is already underway, and although the french do not overly impress me, our futures will be closely tied to them as open skies starts rearing its ugly head again. Our MEC has already started being very proactive with our alliance MECs, and already have some "treaties" in place. Couple that with the words "depression" and "hyperinflation" used in the same sentence waaayyy too much for my taste and this little project we have going makes even more sense. Some majors are going away, I would rather see us eat this figurative turd, than watch some unemployed pilot group eat them for real.
I have no doubt that both airlines could "struggle" through this time period, although I think that we still haven't seen the worst of it. There will be more airlines going away permanently, and I would rather it be a non-ALPA carrier. This agreement virtually assures that it will not be a NWA or Delta pilot.
Additionally, while your side is just sure that furloughs will be a part of this, I am not so sure, unless we continue down the road of separate lists. We are staffed to the bone, and I have heard that you are the same. We need another 1000 pilots just to staff the 777s and 737-700s we have coming. We are parking some 2 man a/c and replacing them with double crewed 2 man aircraft. You have some 787s coming, but when?
Let me be clear, I want this merger for the long term survival and powerhouse of a company it will be. In particular, it will create some semblance of stability. I also want this merger to go with 1 seniority list. I want a fair integration. In order to do that, NWA are going to have to take a seniority hit, so will the Delta guys. I have seen the numbers, and both sets of guys will benefit in career earnings more than they will without the merger. If the NWA pilots are not
willing to realize the very significant gains they
would realize, than that is your choice. It is then very likely that your pilot group will shrink in size, and you will find Delta pilots checked out on 787s and airbuses. Planned retirements, orders, what could have been, what should have been mean NOTHING. We are where we are. I hope that demonstrates a kindler, gentler Puff, and I hope that your MEC explains this to you so that you can make a clear, informed choice to steer your MEC.
I will bow out of the discussion and let you take your parting shots. Make 'em good ones.
