It's a process. It behooves the Company to have labor peace. Wall Street and the investment community want to see labor peace and no unknowns.

At the end of March we are mutually taking the next step: Mediation. (Do not confuse mediation with arbitration. They are totally separate operations.)

We are going to be assigned a skilled mediator. This person will slowly apply pressure on both sides to come to an accommodation. They will make both sides show up to the table. They don't like to admit failure. He or she will use all kinds of negotiating skills to find common ground. If the mediator is successful, we will end up with a contract. If they are unsuccessful, we move to the next step in the process. Mediators don't like to be unsuccessful. We want to be reasonable in our positions. In the eyes of the mediator, you get bonus points for being reasonable.

Before it's over, we will likely stand up a strike committee, family awareness network, a reconstituted P2P and informational picketing. The Company will make sure our fellow employees loath us and threaten us with various types of recriminations. It's all part of the process. Don't take it too personally.

It's a process that can take weeks or years. It depends on the motivation of both sides. There is no avoiding the process. Every airline pilot in this country is unionized. You can't avoid that fact, either.

DAL has never had a strike. NWA was known as Cobra Airlines because they struck at everything. Which approach is better? Who knows. All that we can do is support our brothers and sisters, wear our lanyards and ALPA pins, stay informed and realize that this process is designed to prevent commerce from coming to a stop.