Thats easy. We pattern bargained off the UAL contract and achieved parity to maybe a percent or two above them. Exactly what I have been discussing. UAL pattern bargained off what we achieved in 73N and 767/400/777 negotiations. In the 777 talks we opened for a wild and crazy number, saw half the airframes sold and basically settled for the companies opener. Also note that the 01 contract followed a concessionary contract. Most would not call TA2 concessionary.

From DALPA: sorry it did not format.

hhEarly ’90s: The aviation industry was in severe economic distress
yh1996: Pilots ratified a concessionary contract, which was amendable in 2000 yhOther employee groups had also taken pay cuts
hh1997: Record number of passenger enplanements
hhDelta Air Lines had achieved several consecutive years of profitability hhAugust 1999: Industry pattern bargaining environment for pilots changed
significantly, with UAL contract increasing pay rates as much as 28.5 percent
PRoCess:
hhThe pilot group was unified and looking for gains following several years of a concessionary contract
hhDelta 777 pay rates set the pattern bargaining bar
hhUAL pilots subsequently set a higher bar in pattern bargaining using the “Delta Dot”
(777 pay rates) to establish their pay rates
hhThe Section 6 timeline and process was followed; direct and mediated negotiations
took place before the parties were released into a 30-day“cooling-off”period hhSelf-help was avoided when a tentative agreement was reached while in “super
mediation”