May be completely unfounded, ...but...

Was talking to a regional asst. CP this past week about bringing in a buddy for a pre-screen (i.e. get him to the top of the stack if in fact we do hire in the fall)

He said "Sure bring him in, but it could be complicated by the fact that there is a rumor of a NW furlough. Although they are saying that if that were to take place, they are working on a plan to bring NW furloughs on as DAL newhires, and after that we would still need to hire some." What "some" is I don't know and how that mechanism would work I don't know either although it's impact would probably be minimal since the guys we are talking about are at the bottom anyway.

At any rate, not my words, but those of a guy (asst CP) that should have a fairly good pulse on the situation.