Delta Posts 2nd Qtr Results, Ends Qtr with $5.4 Billion Liquidity

[BILL LUMBERG]

TO: Comair Pilots
FROM: J.C. Lawson, Comair MEC Chairman
DATE: December 16, 2002
Your MEC met in CVG with the Delta MEC Chairman, Captain Will Buergey, at his request, to discuss preferential hiring of furloughed Delta pilots at Comair. Through this letter, I hope to dispel rumors and provide a more thorough understanding of the purpose and outcome of that meeting.

The Delta MEC, while in session at the bi-annual October Board of Directors meeting in Hollywood, Florida, formally directed the Delta MEC Chairman via resolution to meet with the Comair MEC Chairman to seek preferential hiring for furloughed Delta pilots at Comair while allowing them to retain their Delta seniority.

The general philosophy held by the Comair MEC is:

We are sensitive to the regrettable plight of all furloughed pilots in our industry.
We encourage our management to hire pilots who seek a future at Comair.
We have formally approached Comair management and our management has agreed to preferential hiring of furloughed ALPA pilots.
We agree with our company's policy that requires prospective Comair pilots to resign their seniority at their previous carrier.
We believe our Company's industry-standard policy requiring seniority resignation is sound and wise. It promotes the general health and welfare of all Comair employees and serves to protect the future of our company.
At our meeting in CVG, Captain Buergey offered preferential hiring to Comair pilots if the Comair MEC would recommend to Comair management that they hire furloughed Delta pilots and allow them to retain their Delta seniority.

Your MEC responded that hiring any pilots at Comair who do not resign their seniority at their previous carrier gives rise to numerous substantive concerns. The Delta MEC's offer of (future) preferential hiring at Delta is not sufficiently substantive to overcome those concerns and solicit Comair pilots' support. We suggested three alternative concepts, any one or all of which might lead to a mutually beneficial solution:

Relax the Delta PWA, Section 1, seat restrictions imposed upon Comair and ASA that limit our growth in 70-seat and larger airframes.
Negotiate Delta Brand Scope language with Delta management that defines all Delta flying within the Delta revenue stream to be performed solely by Delta, Comair, and ASA pilots.
Negotiate a plan for future integration of our Delta, Comair, and ASA pilots seniority lists that fairly recognizes the efforts and contributions of all.

The Comair MEC stands ready to work with the collective MEC's to bring about change that makes sense in a challenging economic environment and works for all pilots who perform flying under the Delta brand. As we stated in the Tuesday, December 3rd meeting, our door is still open.

COMAIR MEC
AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL
SUITE 120 3940 OLYMPIC BOULEVARD ERLANGER, KY41018
859-282-9016 FAX 859-283-5533

NEVER FORGET.....The sad part is the senior lifer D-bags who encouraged this aren't going to be touched.....they need to be shut down ASAP....

I've never said that about any pilot group until they did that to our guys!!

 

[Schwanker]

NEVER FORGET.....The sad part is the senior lifer D-bags who encouraged this aren't going to be touched.....they need to be shut down ASAP....

I've never said that about any pilot group until they did that to our guys!!

I've heard tales of bad blood but never gave it much thought. I recently read this and was in complete disbelief. I wouldn't paint all Comair pilots with the same D-bag brush, but a majority of them put these definite D-bags in charge. If the rest remained silent, they too share some level of guilt by association. Everyone wants a leg up even if it means standing on the next guys throat while he's gasping for a breath of air.

Schwanker

 

[Schwanker]

Tell me how you really feel.

I am sure that there will be some change to the ATP requirements. Like ERAU, UND etc. They know they need bodies ......

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose? Let's hold pilots to higher standards, then lower the standards to today's standards with a dressy name---problem solved.

Let the airlines worry about how to find 1500 hour pilots with clean records. Maybe they need to pay a premium to get them on board. Imagine that.

 

[N2264J]

NEVER FORGET...

Never forget what...

- that a reasonable offer of Brand Scope, ALPA's highest priority, was put on the table and rebuffed by the DMEC Chairman?

- that the Delta MEC Chairman threatened to seize aircraft and put Comair pilots on the street at that meeting?

 

[Schwanker]

Never forget what...

- that a reasonable offer of Brand Scope, ALPA's highest priority, was put on the table and rebuffed by the DMEC Chairman?

- that the Delta MEC Chairman threatened to seize aircraft and put Comair pilots on the street at that meeting?

Did the reasonable offer include DOH for the Comair guys on a SLI?

 

[PuffDriver]

Never forget what...

- that a reasonable offer of Brand Scope, ALPA's highest priority, was put on the table and rebuffed by the DMEC Chairman?

- that the Delta MEC Chairman threatened to seize aircraft and put Comair pilots on the street at that meeting?

Never forget what a bell tolling sounds like. Do you hear it?

Never forget to not overplay your hand.

Never forget to grasp the opportunity to STFU.

It's coming.........poindexter.

Oh how there will be :bawling::bawling::bawling:

 

[Scope out RJ's]

Never forget what...

That comair is now the one with pilots on furlough!

- that a reasonable offer of Brand Scope, ALPA's highest priority, was put on the table and rebuffed by the DMEC Chairman?

Reasonable? When DOH failed, you sued, you lost! Get over it sparky!

- that the Delta MEC Chairman threatened to seize aircraft and put Comair pilots on the street at that meeting?

......says the baghdad bob of the rjdc!

 

[N2264J]

Did the reasonable offer include DOH for the Comair guys...?

No. You've been misinformed.

 

[PuffDriver]

No. You've been misinformed.

Correct. They were waiting for the commitment of a PID prior to commencing with the "bombing". They hid behind their false assertion that it was not the proper time in the process to actually state that it would be DOH or nothing.
Incorrect as well.

The bell tolled yesterday. Did you hear it, poindexter? Unfortunately, it is tolling for the wrong people--one of the flaws of the seniority system unfortunately.

At the same time, the tolling isn't over.

 

[~~~^~~~]

Lawson's a horse arse, no doubt, but ...

Why didn't Bill Buergey just negotiate preferential hiring, or flow down with Delta, like Giambusso did the LOA for the bid restricted second officers?

Delta owned and managed Comair. Delta negotiates with Delta. No need to fight with Lawson, let him read about it via Company memo.

At least half the reason Lawson did what he did is because Buergey gave him that leverage.

Also, why did Bill Buergey just accept Lawson's rebuff? No negotiations? ALPA did eventually give in and allow Comair to bind Delta in their scope agreement, so why not make that change back when it would have helped Delta pilots?

Lawson had legitimate concerns. The fact that the "bell is tolling for Comair" when other non - ALPA DCI carriers are flush with new airplanes and long term contracts is ample evidence of the reasons Lawson was trying to negotiate his own scope to protect his pilots.

The fact his first "solution" was ridiculous and politically poisonous did not mean that mutually beneficial alternatives could not have been found. We let the bad guys win this round when cooler heads could have come up with better answers.

It is my impression (possibly wrong, who knows :0 ) that Buergey had other issues that he considered more important and he enjoyed the political mileage that Lawson's faux pas provided.