Carl,

ALPA did what they did because they believed it to be in your best interest.

Last I spoke with him, Captain Moak firmly believes that Delta pilots are better off not getting in the RJ fray because:

• The economics do not support a "mainline" contract and quality of life
• The operational future platform is limited by economics (heavy paraphrasing on my part)

As you point out, this was a long term deal. We could go all the way back to Babbit (who has since recanted), but as for our local situation ... Delta's MEC Chairman Charles Giambusso had just finished killing off the dreaded "B Scale" and the last thing he wanted in 1999 - 2000 was to bring it back on the property via operation of ASA, or Comair's flying. He felt military pilots would not want to work for those conditions and overall pilot quality at Delta would decrease as a result.

The plan then, which remains today, was to keep those undesirable airplanes off the property and restrict their numbers. That was OUR idea, it remains OUR idea today.

You say that "bargaining credits" were just political eyewash, but when you understand the internal workings of Interest Based Bargaining those numbers had real effect.

Although I constantly talk "unity" it was not that any of these guys decided to destroy "unity." They just didn't make the logical connection at that time between scope negotiations and unity. I think the level of dialogue and consideration has evolved, thanks in no small part to the marketplace of ideas shared in forums just like this.

I think our MEC gets it now and I think we will be pleased with our opener.