Obviously, only my opinion.

Why does Delta buy fuel hedges? After all, fuel is eventually bought at market and hedges are really just insurance against market fluctuations. Yes, you can use them to bet on the market, but eventually statistics tell us pretty reliably that the net is near zero and Delta still had to pay the premium. The answer is certainty. To plan profitable flying, Delta has to have a certain cost in mind for fuel.

This agreement provides management certainty over another big expense, labor. With that expense understood, they can decide what airplanes make sense, where does Capital get the greatest return? Getting this out of the way allows them to move forward, just as they did with the 717's in C2012.

It isn't that they can't run the airline without certainty, but they can not plan as well without certainty. Having agreement lowers risk.

I'd also like to point out the converse of this cooperation. Delta could just plan on the pilots fighting them on everything. If that were the case Delta would avoid using us as much as they could and try to outsource more; while becoming stagnant & losing a first mover advantage in the marketplace.

Especially on the international side, margins are tight and our competitors (like the ME carriers) don't have labor problems. We can move together and remain competitive, or fight each other and lose the World (quite literally).

Just my opinion, that is how I think management sees it.