Mr B,

First I will defend DALPA and say that we tired that once and were taken to court - we lost. We can not unilaterally change the status-quo or something like that. The company went after 39, or was it 49 pilots personally via the court system.

Now after defending DALPA on the this very issue I will say DALPA was given a golden opportunity to do exactly what you mentioned and totally blew it - in my opinion one of DALPA's biggest failures.

Let me set the scene. We were in BK. We had over one thousand Pilots furloughed. DCI was hiring like gangbusters. We either had an 1113 hanging over our head or already agreed to LOA 46, not sure. The company reduced Green-slips to 150% pay and did not count leaves, sick leave, vacation etc toward the green slip trigger. In other words we had no status-quo, the company changed our contract.

Did DALPA rise to the occasion and put out the word - "Hey, guys no extra flying with furloughs on the street." Hell No! We were given a total freebie, we had no status-quo, the exact reason we were sued a few years prior and we blew it. Guys were Green-slipping like crazy with over one thousand Delta Pilots on the street. Hiding behind some BS status-quo threat when no such status-quo existed for 150% green-slips. We totally blew it.

Not only that, but sometime around then we agreed to allow retired Pilots, who had received their lump sums, to come back and help Delta man some of the senior positions. The company figured out we were short in some of the senior categories and came to DALPA for help. DALPA of course, obliged.

Not sure what, if anything we got for that. Maybe just the satisfaction of helping an incompetent management team get out from under one of their screw ups.

Not DALPA's finest hour.

Scoop