Contract 2000 helped put Delta Air Lines into bankruptcy. There, I said it.

It was an unlikely set of circumstances that resulted in the outlier contract to begin with. For starters, Delta's Board picked a management team who was inexperienced in the business, unrealistic and who lost its own moral legitimacy with "legal" replacing "the right thing to do." Contract 2000 was in many ways payback for failing to correct Contract 96 when the relationship with pilots could have been best preserved. McKinsey and Co. consulting was mostly running the decision making (at least the modeling) both at Delta and United. This modeling has Mullin, Reid and Burns giving speeches about "new cost paradigms" and believing Delta could not spend enough money because our competitors would try to match us and they would run out of liquidity before we did.

With this philosophy, they set about burning the furniture, steadfast in the belief that it was OK to waste because others would bleed out first.

Part of the McKinsey modeling was outsourcing a huge amount of Delta flying ... a plan ALPA was happy to play along with. This plan required a cheap operator to outsource to, but there was the hitch. Comair pilots had become wary of ALPA National's leadership and the pilot group increasing motivated by what they felt was unfair treatment as a subsidiary of Delta and being prostrate to "mainline" ALPA. Having observed ASA's precedent setting contract in 99 which was obtained by throwing ALPA National out of the room and threatening Delta, the Comair leadership correctly reasoned that they could get the first "mainline" contract at a regional by going for the short hairs ... and they did, at a high cost to Delta (around $660,000,000 or over $300,000.00 per pilot). Both Delta and ALPA proved their resolve (and lack of leadership) during the Comair strike.

The next headlines in April 2001 were: "Delta Air Lines reached a surprising tentative contract agreement yesterday with the union representing its pilots, averting a strike deadline set for next week." No one talks about Comair's involvement in this (and maybe they were not involved, but I believe Delta's inexperienced managers were scared out of their wits as they witnessed the incredible cash burn of a strike involving less than 12% of their operation - they realized a strike at mainline was such an immediate risk to the Company that even with George Bush's assurances that he would halt a strike - they had to fold.)

Contract 2000 was a Pyrrhic victory for D-ALPA. It was a political victory in a time devoid of common sense in the industry. Contract 2000 was also in many ways United plus 1%. United went into bankruptcy before Delta and it needs to be noted the financial condition of the entire industry was showing clearly negative cyclical trends PRIOR to the tragedy of September 11th.

The psychological importance of Contract 2000 pay rates as a benchmark is a powerful political force within our Delta pilot ranks. However, it was unsustainable in the marketplace then and is even more unsustainable now. It was the antonym of POS96 but, as we have learned pilots are much more tied to their employers than their managers are.

This one post is probably enough to ensure I'll never run for office at D-ALPA, but still we should be evaluating our contract goals very pragmatically. If we are smart we will remember our Company is some 24 Billion dollars in debt and that our competitors do not carry this drag on their balance sheets. This debt keeps us from buying new airplanes, being able to compete and growing.

Our current DALPA leadership and our Company leadership have been commendably intelligent in finding ways to improve our bankruptcy contract outside of Section 6, when opportunities arise. It has been a very mature and rational partnership. We will continue to do well if management resists Mullins, Reid and Burns era corruption and D ALPA continues it's reasoned push for seizing every advantage through partnership rather than brinkmanship.

In setting our goals for Contract 2012, we need to remain good students of economics, comparative rates at our competitors and history. I have every confidence our Representation will do just that.