Originally Posted by sailingfun

... Had he granted that 5 percent mid contract raise and given back the week of vacation Delta might be a very different airline today. Instead you had a pilot group chanting A Contract is A Contract and a CEO afraid to even ask for anything. DALPA leadership would have been tared and feather by the pilot group had they suggested concessions to conserve cash and Leo was afraid of a near riot by the pilots if he pushed for it after his stupid choices.

That left the Dalpa and the Company like two kids at a Junior High Dance looking at each other across the floor. The both wanted to dance and knew they should be dancing together but had no idea how to get it started. As a result contract 01 ran for all but a few months of its full duration.

With cash critical and the airline now almost two late to even file Chapter 11 without liquidation things were beyond critical and major changes happened. New management both at Dalpa and the Company. I love this forum where guys not even hired then choose to go to work for this company years later and now can tell those of us who were there everything we did wrong and how screwed up Dalpa was.
The facts are that new Dalpa leadership pulled this airline through the Chapter 11 process in better shape both as a airline and as a pilot contract then anyone else. Dalpa produced substantial and different revenue streams for the pilots including the MPP, Note, Claim and merger money. Money often forgotten in the screams about pay rates. They saved a substantial portion of the retirement and produced a future system with a much fairer result for all pilots junior and senior.
Perhaps even more important a union that was able to work with the company beat off a hostile takeover that everyone else including wallstreet thought was a shoe in. Parker was so arrogant and sure he had the deal he did not even try and sugar coat it to anyone. He was asked about Delta employess he said thousands would be furloughed ASAP. Over 150 aircraft would be parked including every MD88. He told Boeing one of the seats on the creditors committee he would give Boeing no preference on aircraft orders. The same with General Electric on engines. Lee Moak widely hated here did simply amazing work in convincing the creditors committee to forgo a offer that would have put a lot of cash in their pockets asap and wait for a recovering Delta to pay them back. The vote by the committee to stay with Delta was a shock to everyone especially Parker. He was sure the deal was done.

Its great the new guys can tell us everything we did wrong after 911. They did not however live through it and despite that fact that according to many new pilots we failed completely they have eagerly sought work here. Very confusing to me!