Originally Posted by
Captain Tony
You are correct in most of your assertions. The 20 year regional guys would never have accepted a staple and the DAL guys never would have offered more. Yes, the PID failed because of massive egos on the DAL side. No, the PID wasn't a "land grab", it was a request for ALPA to follow its own rules. instead, ALPA chose to change the rules. Never before had two ALPA carriers, with significant operational integration been acquired by a larger carrier and not merged into the larger carrier, much less each other.
My question to you is why do you feel this is fair? Why do you feel they were inferior to you? You both do the exact same job for the same company. Flying a heavy doesn't make you a better pilot than flying an RJ. In fact, it probably makes you less proficient simply because you fly less.
Come back with an iron clad prenup with a staple below anyone on the list as of 01-01-2015 and we can have a serious discussion about it.
Follow its own rules to get more than a staple, for a "merger" that doesn't have to happen by contract? Right. You can't point to operational integration while ignoring contract realities. Even if ALPA said yes to your sacred and honorable "process" that maybe could have just so happened most likely given you way more than a staple over current DL pilots, how would they make DL management actually do it? So DL pilots would have to go to bat to pay for your seniority land grab?
Right.
The 20 year regional guys should have gladly accpted a staple as the high water mark and never even attempted for more. But that's what it was all about all along. They saw an opporunity and they went for it. They thought they had leverage and they had none. They thought they'd pull a parliamentary and procedural trick and their dreams would all come true. They tried and weren't successful and now we are where we are.
Both sides can blame straw men stereotypes like the RJ pilot on one side that thought he would become instant 777 Captain and the mainline pilot that demanded his squadron buddy never have to fly anything under 100 seats or whatever. While there were examples of individuals on both sides with those attitudes, neither is what actually prevented it from happening. ASA/CMR launched an assault on the DL pilot seniority list and they demanded unconditional surrender from day one because they really thought the system would get them in front of an arbitrator and they would become senior to current DL pilots all the while trying to act like righteous victims just wanting fairness. Thankfully they were not successful.