The Joint contract that was reached between Delta, NWA and the company was only valid with a complete SLI done at the same time. It was a 3 way deal. We had to have agreements between management at both companies, a joint contract and the SLI list done. The Delta chairmans letter has been posted here that details what happened. The new contract was not valid if the SLI went to arbitration. Arbitration is a long process that can take 1 to 2 years. The company wanted a done deal upfront. They felt that being able to integrate the airlines quickly would give them advantages over other airlines that would translate into cash. They were willing to share that cash with the pilots. The company had in fact stated that absent all 3 items complete there would be no merger.
The company changed their mind on the merger. Some say fuel prices and some say they were going to do it all along. We will never know. The joint contract was long gone at this point. Dalpa's contract had several items in the scope section that would have made a merger expensive for Delta. Delta asked for waivers on those items. Mainly it dealt with Midwest Express, Total number of RJ's and restrictions on international code share hours. Dalpa agreed to those changes in exchange for higher raises then the old contract. 3.5% more in 09. This is a LOA not a new contract. Delta has pointed out from the day of the merger annoucement that a joint contract has to be negotiated with Delta and NWA. Delta has no legal or other ability to renegotiate the NWA working agreement. Can you imagine the screaming if we tried to change NWA's contract. That is up to the NWA pilots. No one has been left behind. In fact exactly the opposite has occurred. Dalpa has raised the bar for the joint contract and insured higher raises for everyone. If both sides get their act together LOA 19 should never ever take effect. We will all work under a new joint contract. The only thing any NWA pilot should be mad about on LOA 19 was that we did not get more.

One last thing to point out. In every prior Delta merger going back to Chicago and Southern the pilots were brought up to Delta pay over a period of years. Dalpa insistend and helped achieve immediate pay parity in the joint contract that did not go into effect. Hopefully we can achieve the same on the joint contract to come.