I just read the chairman's letter. Exciting stuff, I hope we have something soon too, that would really be unprecedented. There is emphasis on RATIO of mainline to DCI, and I am reading between the lines here to mean growth would possibly allow more DCI. So I hope if any of the negotiators are reading this there is some kind of protection on this in case of a merger. Here's my example with rough numbers and totally made up statistics and a made up merger. I used number of pilots instead of airframes because it is an easier way to look at it so it is obviously just a very rough idea of what I am talking about.

let's say it is 60% mainline to 40% DCI.
12,000 mainline delta pilots 8000 DCI
500 Hawaiian pilots

Merger: 12,500 Delta/hawaiian pilots
Delta wants to reduce pilots to 12200. 300 retire and we don't hire to backfill.
Now: 12,200 Delta pilots, 8,133 pilots are now allowed for DCI. Delta has lost 300 pilots with no upward movement while DCI can have 133 more pilots. I am not including what Hawaiian already has for connection carriers because I have no idea.

So moral of the story is if the negotiators are reading this please be very careful with language regarding a merger. I may be totally wrong in my idea of how this all would work, so feel free to correct me, but I just was concerned when I saw RATIO and an emphases to get the contract done for possibly an Unknown reason.