Originally Posted by
DAL4EVER
Spliff,
During furlough I was privy to have a management job away from Delta that allowed me to be in a boardroom. Time and again I was privy to information that considered "insider" information. Our MEC has that information as well and it can't be disseminated to the rank and file without landing them in jail. The best they can do is come forward with a TA that takes in those facts. You don't know the business plan. I don't either in this case. But I can tell you emphatically, that as a former Director, the MEC is privy to this, has a member on the board who is privy to this and we need to understand that just because oil is down to $120/barrel its still $30/barrel higher than when the merger was first announced. Oil at this level still means a loss to the company. ACL65 is right, this merger is going to cost billions. A new terminal at JFK is going to cost billions. New a/c are going to cost billions. And a new contract is going to do the same. I would rather negotiate in four years when many of these costs have been absorbed and still be making the highest wages of any legacy carrier than hamstring the company and put all of us at risk. To me, that's the risk that is unacceptable.
Moreover, can't negotiations start sooner than 4 years? If the new powerhouse DAL starts making money hand over fist, the combined MEC can approach mgt and ask to reopen negotiations in order to get a share of the profits for the combined pilot group. If mgt replies with "A contract is a contract" then come official opening of negotiations, mgt might face a pretty united pilot group. I think DAL can look to its own history to see how that all went down last time.