That's sort of what we got in the merger ... an extension of the T.K. rope off the seats plan. The economic disincentives to furlough likely prevented furloughs, so far. Of course, if Delta can't sell the seats, it is less of a disincentive to Delta during a protracted downturn (as we may be entering if many economists are correct).

Unfortunately there are times when an airline needs to shrink, or else the thing is likely to go out of business. Our leadership has been there and does not want to return to bankruptcy. A hard floor is unlikely to be negotiated in the interest of preserving jobs for "the rest of us."

At the same time we want all of Delta's growth. Not simply stagnation above a floor number. We want any new flying to be us.

What we want is the contractual right to our flying. Delta can run its airline as it sees fit, we'll be in charge of pilot labor. We don't care what Delta flies, we simply want to be the pilots who's labor is needed.

ACL65 is of the opinion that as 2013 and pilot hiring needs approach, Delta will want to extend our seniority list down to some regional partners with the quid pro quo that they'll buy "our" airplanes. That makes sense on many levels but would be quite complicated to execute.

The last thing we want is a floor, or a ceiling. We do not need a repeat of Compass with pilots off the seniority list, forgot in a merger and tossed to the side while our fleet replacement jets are outsourced.

Bottom line, as a union we need UNITY and as long as we keep that as the central goal, we'll work out the details when the time comes.