Finis,

Yours is a good post.

You have to add to your considerations the tailwinds the DPA recieved from many Delta pilots who have been displaced post - merger and who's careers have moved backwards since 2008. Ironically, many of these pilots joined with their Northwest brothers in the "I got screwed" crowd, although ironically the remedy for each is the destruction of the other.

The bigger issue (and more immediate for those of us who watch this sort of thing) is that the Delta MEC has been unwilling to stand up to protect and promote it's turf. Clearly Delta Flying is a concern of the Delta pilots. Yet, our MEC had no reaction to another pilot group coming to Delta and negotiating in secret to reach an agreement to perform Delta flying.

If the Delta MEC really desires to kill the DPA and restore unity, they need only to do their job. That job is to promote the interests of the Delta pilots. We are currently failing to promote our interests within our own association.

Our best move, as an Council within an Association is to properly administer our business, based on the governing documents of our Association. Specifically, we should place ALPA on notice that we will not tolerate expartied bargaining which excludes Delta pilots. Further, we should ensure management has no opportunity to exclude us by placing the Delta Master Executive Council in Recognition, alongside ALPA in our Pilot Working Agreement. (and we can always decide not to participate when it is not in our interest to do so)

We can debate the efficacy of the PUB program; how many it reaches and at what cost. However, if we want to put the DPA behind us and move forward in unity, we need to get our MEC to do it's job to promote it's own power. The Delta pilots need to see a strong representative advancing it's interests.

The central foundation of the DPA is a belief in a "conflict of interest" instead of the coordination of interest that airlines share in a National Association. By properly managing our role within our Association we would demonstrate coordination which would rob the foundation of the DPA right out from under it. The DPA collapses without it's foundation.