Originally Posted by
Cogf16
Super,
I appreciate the tone and civility but I really don't see how the Delta proposal is seen as extreme. Relative position with modifications for our aircraft orders and your possible aircraft parkings doesn't seem extreme. I have heard of NW guys figuring they stand to lose approx 1-4% on relative position under the Delta proposal and if you take most or all of that out in the final iteration after "negotiating", isn't retaining your current NW relative position at the new Delta fair and reasonable? Remember, because of our much higher % of widebody/intl flying than NWA, your retained relative position at Delta will be much more valuable, not to mention the payraises. I just can't understand how this could be viewed as extreme and totally unreasonable.
Mark
Delta
No problem, and i will try and get a few points across here. If you look at what you and everyone else at DAL is saying, you guys try and portray NWA as a dieing breed and we have nothing to look forward to in career expectations. While you all at DAL have nothing but good times and growth ahead of you. Its not very hard to see that mentality expressed by the Dal team. The truth is NWA is doing better than most and our earnings report will be out tomorrow and from what our side put out yesterday it should look good. We are a profitable airline and consistently make as much if not more money than DAL even though we are 2/3's the size. Also the avg age of the entire NWA pilot list is around 54 years old! Based on numbers alone, not counting growth or status quo, i was set to be over 55% up the list in the next 10-12 years. SO in that period of time i would be a lot higher up the list at that point than a DAL pilot hired around the same time i was. That DAL guy may be on a widebody FO seat now but thats where he will sit for a long time. We have a "crystal ball" or seniority forecaster on the alpa website that shows where you are scheduled to be and when. Mine showed me being 45% on the list in 10-12 years. I was set to be in roughly the top 1/3 of the list for the last 25 years of my career retiring at number 3. A DAL newhire around my hire date isnt looking at that. Not that this is about ME but those are the things that i have personally looked at. Every stage of the NWA list would get reamed with the DAL proposed list so yes it is considered an extreme from our side of the fence. I am young enough to end up fine either way but the majority of the NWA list isnt.
Anyway, point being that both sides have their strong and weak points but the image you DAL guys try and put out about NWA doesnt show the whole picture it only shows what you guys want to point out. Bottom line is both carriers had strong outlooks premerger and we all should have strong outlooks post merger. I hope it turns out that way because i am here for the longhaul regardless.
In the end i think this will be great for everyone but anyone who thinks they should be better off than someone else on the other side as a result of this merger is wrong IMHO. All of these points i am sure will be brought up in the arbitration meetings but when the decision comes out i am sure we will all find a way to deal with it and move on.