Originally Posted by Sink r8

It's a good thing you're not the MEC Chairman, because I'd doubt the MEC Chairman's sanity for writing something so stupid, and out of order. Donatelli is rather well versed with strike preparations, and I think he probably has a much better sense of the pilot group than you do, partly because his communication style isn't "transmit-only". I'm pretty sure he knows when to pull certain levers. You don't stand up the group for no reason, and you don't stand them up prematurely, with nothing to do. When you do act, it's because management is legitimately stonewalling us, and pilot sentiment supports it, demands it really. At that point, the nervous Nellies are motivated to join, and the group moves in lockstep.

Your message already presupposes a failure to negotiate. I don't think we're going to get what we need early, or without a fight, but I think our leverage goes well beyond a strike. There is a lot of value in Delta being able to continue to sell the image of good labor relations. Your nonsensical approach would shatter that possibility, drop the value of an uninterrupted smooth operation to zero, and leave us both in defensive positions, for the long-term. It's the equivalent of going to marital counseling with your divorce lawyer.

I guess I wouldn't mind your premature ejaculation on this topic so much if you didn't take the gratuitous swipe of "no matter what", that same stupid label you used before to paint all South pilots as unwilling to strike. At any rate, when it comes to formulating a strategy for using the strike, I'm not sure you want to be giving lessons to Donatelli.