Originally Posted by EdGrimley

T, I respect your viewpoint although I disagree with publicly stating over and over again we have no leverage. It plays right into managements hands.

Let me start by putting a different angle on the "a good poker player never shows his hand" meme. A good poker player gives every indication they have a winning hand and executes in a confident manner. How do we do that as a union? We state our goals and execute a strategy. More on that later.

It's clear the company is so flush with cash right now they are putting money not only on "need" projects but also "want" projects that were previously far down the list. If the company didn't declare dividends, weren't buying back stock and spending money on a dozen other pet projects the net profit for 2014 could be 5 Billion. The money is there. We have established that.

Now back to the goals and strategy. I know from your earlier comments you don't believe labor unrest (picketing, discussing with the media specifics about how management is making more now than pre 911 vs the pilot group, etc) would do any good. You do not believe even the threat of that would have any effect on leverage or increase the chances of achieving restoration. I disagree. A few things that come up in every investor conference. 1. Amazing labor relations 2. Getting rid of 50 seaters saved a ton of money 3. Virtual mergers with airlines all over the globe allow milk without buying the cow and hence we reduced our international flying from 2012 to the present. 4. One of the most productive airlines in the business.

A sophisticated thinker has to look at the information put out by the company to investors vs what the company puts out to employees or the government when they (Delta) want something. Look at their current campaign to remove government taxes from advertised prices and how they spin that as a benefit to consumers.

But I digress. The union needs to be willing to go out of their comfort zone. To do things differently. The union needs to quite propagating it's (the company's) talking points/disinformation and go directly to the pilots, educating them on how much money it will really take to restore compensation/work rules back to previous highs with interest factored in. A robust campaign to show where we are coming up short and get all pilots on deck with an informational campaign. Put a vote out on a pre contract that shows 97% of the pilots are behind the GOAL and ready to fight to achieve it. This is at the root of our leverage. Management types on this message board will disagree. They have an agenda to dissuade this type of thinking.

Maybe the NMB will work with us maybe they wont. If the company sees this kind of solidarity and weigh it alongside their stated goals (which would still be achievable) vs a prolonged negative public battle with the pilots, I do believe they would step up and be much more willing to make the pilots whole. You can say no it won't. We wont know if we can get more than cost of living and cost neutral contracts until we try something different. We must try something different. This has nothing to do with DPA. This has to do with DALPA stepping up putting the company on notice that cozy, yet lopsided constructive engagement that has proved primarily constructive to one side is going to change. It's time to stand up and be counted. We are investors in the company. Our dividends are due.