You are not powerless. You have elected reps who are making decisions on your behalf every day. The NW pilots, through their union officials, have elected to protect their date of hire and realize the benefits of the faster "attrition" that is coming due to the age of the pilots at the top of your seniority list.
The Delta pilots are going to respect that decision. NWA is apparently going to be operated as a seperate division of a holding company until the amendable date of your contract.
The Delta MEC long ago decided to seek benefits from any merger scenario in an "upfront" fashion. We had our seniority attrition a few years ago due to the pension termination process and elected to preserve our merger and fragmentation language instead of making deeper concessions to preserve the pension. We are now finally going to realize some benefits from that strategy in the form of wage increases and maybe some small equity stake.
The two pilot groups took different paths. You will get your attrition benefits and your senior pilots will retire with their pensions. I hope you don't begrudge us the small monetary benefits we may receive largely as a result of giving up our pension.