Originally Posted by
Carl Spackler
When Chairman Bloch made his "roulette wheel" statement, I believe he was talking about this type of expectation - among others. Just the same as if I were to say that all our 787 options will allow me to fly as a senior 787 CA. I think the arbitrators made it about as clear as I have ever heard (prior to an award), this level of protection for pilots (especially senior ones) can't be predicted, and as such, ain't gonna happen.
Carl
Is it possible, Carl, that some of those "among others" you cite with Bloch's "roulette wheel" statement just as likely refer to expectations of future advancement due to retirements? IOW, a mid seniority NW pilot claiming: "All the NW retirements
will allow me to be very senior in 5-7-10 years". You would be hard-pressed to justify a negative answer to that question. On a more general note, I can tell you that 210 DL pilots in the top 1400 positions simply will not "fly". And I find it hard to believe 2 of 3 arbitrators would disagree, given the uncertainties of the future of this industry. Now, we can speculate on the gargantuan and detailed fences that you might think would assuage our concerns, but they won't, DL brings 1100 senior international widebody captain positions to the merger, NW brings 500. 210 of 1400 is extreme, to put it mildly, regardless of what your blue and red charts show. DL has not put on their rebuttal case yet, (and they have full access to all the details of the NW proposal, and I don't) I would imagine they will find many uncontemplated (by us) faults w/NW's proposal. Speculating on ever-increasing-in-complexity DOH fences, (which ultimately leads to an actual non-merger of pilot groups, to keep everyone safe) is futile. The final solution, whether negotiated or arbitrated, will expose both pilot groups equally to those "vagaries of the future". DOH w/fences does not expose both groups equally to that risk.