Originally Posted by
sailingfun
There was no take. A better question was what were the options? Management waited way to long to file chapter 11 trying to protect their precious stock options and ran us dangerously low on cash. The original judge who at least seemed somewhat pro labor Delta managed to get replaced by a hard core anti labor judge.
We made the best of a very bad situation. Most have no idea how close Delta was to liquidation. We preserved the basic framework of our work rules and converted a big chunk of the retirement into other income. (MPP money, note money, claim money, PBGC, DC plan ect..)
We avoided the 6 year chapter 11 contracts airlines like NWA, USAIR, UAL were forced into with a 3 year deal. We positioned the airline so that it could succeed and have been making a recovery far more rapid then I ever thought possible.
If I had posted on this forum in 2007 that Delta would be the first choice of most new hire pilots 7 years later I would have had a thousand posts telling me how crazy that was. We still have further to go but we have come a long way.
I'm not really arguing the need for so many pilot concessions or the difficult options that were faced at the time. I'm merely debating the whole "give and take" argument poised during a TA.
By measure of your own words. The bankruptcy TA's offered nothing to the pilots other than continued employment. The company TOOK what they needed during the hard times, but somehow find it difficult to GIVE during the good times.
I'm only trying to make the point that every contract negotiation is not a simple game of "give and take".