Originally Posted by
Sink r8
... I guess the bridge agreement is not a rumor:
1) Who exactly is the Airline Pilot Association that is referred to in Section 1(A) of our contract? I always assumed it was the Delta MEC. I think most pilots assume this. Can this association negotiate with Delta without any involvement by the DAL MEC? I think most guys assume it cannot.
The Railway Labor Act outlines the power that the Air Line Pilots Association has as our exclusive (meaning one and only) Bargaining Agent.
Section IV, Section 2, of ALPA's Constitution and Bylaws provides each MEC broad autonomy to deal with issues that concern that airlines' pilots.
ALPA can, and has, negotiated without the concurrence of the Delta MEC. It has the power to do so, but most ALPA politicians have respected the Delta MEC. The fact an ALPA President has authorized the sort of bargaining which took place here is a change from past ALPA policy.
Originally Posted by
Sink r8
2) Is the "meet-and-confer" requirement binding only on the mainline side? If our MEC was not involved, does it not invalidate that requirement? You cannot have it both ways: either we all meet-and-confer, or we do not.
You see it how most people see it. Section 40 of our union's Admin Manual, Part 1, Paragraph 3, establishes a process by which airlines in an mainline / express system meet and review opening proposals. The goal is to coordinate and work together towards a common goal. This coordination prevents harm which impacts pilots across carrier lines, as we see here in modifications to the Delta PWA, committing airplanes from other DCI carriers and reordering preferential interview opportunities.
The way this is supposed to work is that our President would not authorize bargaining contrary to our Admin Manual.
However, reports are that Lee Moak did authorize this bargaining with the understanding that it did not effect the Delta pilot working agreement, which brings us to a much deeper problem.
The concept that this is "none of your business."
For this to be
"none of our business" it would mean that any flying Delta permits is no longer "Delta flying." This is a a significant policy change. Until now, Delta flying has remained Delta flying even if it is permitted to be flown elsewhere. We owned Delta flying. ... draw a real big circle. (ignore the titles, I had to borrow an unrelated image)
With this new interpretation we only own what we explicitly own and everything else is fair game for other pilot groups to sit down with our management and negotiate for. Real quickly you can see how the new definition of "Delta flying" looks something like a map of Fulton County, GA.
That is why this precedent has the potential to really harm Delta pilots. With other pilot groups at the table, we are just one competitor among many for flying. New flying, new Company operations, which we have not explicitly scoped (and how can we know what might be created ... Delta has a handful of Certificates that it is not using) could be anyone's.