Originally Posted by
Tropical
First of all, you're retired, so maybe you could consider paring back your lectures to this pilot group.
Second of all, you used a lot of words to say "ALPA merger policy considers career expectations, longevity, and status and category". The CRJ900 is not currently flown at Delta and would come in below even the 717. The career expectations of a 30 year CRJ900 A wouldn't even come close to a Delta 717 A. The career expectations of a CR9 B wouldn't come close to a new hire Delta 350B. No arbitrated list in recent history has gone straight DOH, so it's unlikely they could use their 30 year RJ lifer status to tru*mp the other two.
You never know what an arbitrator will rule, but it is very likely that a staple with fences is the most fair integration under ALPA policy, and McCaskill-Bond may not even apply since we are not like carriers.
Finally, even Delta management would likely rather walk away than see some 30 year RJ guy end up as a Delta 330A and cause a downward cascade of training events. Simply ain't gonna happen. They'll pull the plug on 9E a la Comair before they'll let that happen.
Your cascading training comment makes no sense. Virtually every seniority integration includes a no bump/no flush clause. In fact moving a CR900 CA to an open A350 CA slot would create fewer training events than moving a 767 CA to that slot.
You seem to also imply that I am suggesting a merger would go DOH. It would never come even close to that but it would some type of integration other than a staple. I doubt any list would place a regional pilot into the top 50% of the combined list and probably would top out far lower. What would not happen however is a straight staple. Some weight has to be given to each of the tenants of the merger policy.
As far as being retired I have a vested interest in what happens at several of the major airlines. I also lived through many mergers personally and have close friends involved in even more. I suspect your experience is a bit more limited. The arbitration will result in splitting the baby. It would be heavily weighted in Delta’s favor but it’s highly unlikely to be a staple. If you are in the top 50% at Delta it’s a non event. Below that people might end up very unhappy.
In the end however it’s all simply speculation and I doubt Delta management would ever merge the airlines. They would stage an orderly shutdown of Endeavor and transfer the aircraft to the mainline. In another year or two they will have the surplus training capacity to easily handle such a scenario.