How about a simple addition that one time charges will not be used in calculating pilot profit sharing? Below is the text of questions/answers from today's FAQ email:

Q: I thought you said that our profit sharing plan is not being changed. Why has the language in Section 3 I. changed?

A: The Delta pilots’ profit sharing plan has not changed. The TA ensures profit sharing payouts will be determined in the exact same way that it has been in years’ past. Last year, the Company announced that it would change the calculation for the profit sharing plan payout for their ground and Flight Attendant employees. This had the effect of creating two separate pools of money from which each employee group would take its share. However, the share of each pool of money to which a given employee group is entitled did not change, nor did the pool of money from which the Delta pilots receive our share. When the Delta pilots’ profit sharing payout is calculated, the first step remains determining PTIX. The second step is to calculate the pool of money of which the Delta pilots will receive their share by adding 10% of the first $2.5B of PTIX to 20% of the amount of PTIX above $2.5B. The third step is to determine the percentage that the collective Delta pilots’ annual compensation represents of the annual compensation of all eligible employees – pilots, dispatchers, ground employees, and Flight Attendants. The Delta pilots then collectively receive that percentage of the pool of money that was calculated under Section 3 I. The change to the language in Section 3 I. serves merely to clarify this process now that the Company has altered the calculation for the pool of money of which their ground and Flight Attendant employees receive their share.

Resolution of Profit Sharing Grievances
Q: There’s been a lot of talk about the profit sharing grievances filed earlier this year. What is the status of those grievances and have they been settled as part of the new tentative agreement?

A: MEC Grievances 16-02 and 16-07 both pertain to our profit sharing plan but differ significantly. Grievance 16-02 concerns a prior settlement agreement over the transatlantic joint venture (TA-JV) resulting in a $30 million payment to the Delta pilots covering a period of nearly four years of non-compliance with the TA-JV production balance. Delta did not include the settlement proceeds as part of a pilot’s annual compensation under Section 3 A: 1. and 3 I. for purposes of calculating the profit sharing payout this past February 2016. A System Board of Adjustment hearing was scheduled for October but has been postponed with the parties reaching a Tentative Agreement. Should the Tentative Agreement ratify, the Company has agreed to pay the additional $3.9 million, covering the full amount of profit sharing owed from the settlement proceeds. This additional payment of profit sharing will also receive the 15% DPSP contribution that profit sharing payments are eligible for.

MEC Grievance 16-07, which is scheduled to be heard by the System Board in January 2017, was filed over Delta’s calculation of pre-tax income (PTIX as defined in Section 3 A: 10.) for purposes of determining profit sharing for calendar year 2015, reducing February’s profit sharing payout to pilots by about $9.6 million (plus the 15% DPSP contribution). Specifically, the grievance challenges the Company’s decision to exclude (1) severance payments as a one-time, extraordinary expense, and (2) the devaluation of Venezuelan currency resulting from Delta being unable to extract ticket sale money from Venezuela: Following discussion with the Company over its calculation, Delta contends that its handling of these items is fully in accordance with the PWA provisions and accounting practices and that severance payments, though included in 3 of the prior 4 years, should no longer be considered a one-time, nonrecurring or extraordinary expense. Delta also has stated, among other things, that
the Venezuelan currency devaluation is part of the cost of doing business in Venezuela and that Delta has benefitted in prior years from the profits — never recovered — that the Venezuelan operation has generated. Without conceding these arguments, the Association has conditionally agreed to withdraw this grievance for calendar year 2015 (i.e., for the February 2016 payout). If the Tentative Agreement is ratified, Grievance 16-07 will be withdrawn without prejudice to our position in this matter. The Association would retain the legal right to file similar grievances in the future should we determine that the PTIX calculation is computed improperly.