Originally Posted by Boomer

Here's how it works - Comair and Delta are one and the same when it comes to marching orders. ng4 will only offer what Delta says to offer, in this case paycuts and no more LC reserve. Then ng4 will bellyache that he has no wiggle room if we want Delta to let us live.

And we'll say "we want more pay to make up for contracts 05 and 07 where we've moved backwards."

And Comair will say "Hold on a minute...(they pick up a phone and murmur into it)... ATL says if you don't take another 15% cut they'll give your planes to SKW/ASA/Pinnacle/Mesaba."

And we'll say "Burn it down"

And they'll murmur into the phone and say "ATL says if you take a 12% cut you can keep the planes you already have except the ones scheduled to come off lease."

And we'll say "Show us the lease return schedule"

"Umm, we can't do that. We'll tell you what the schedule is after you sign the contract"

"That's good enough for us. But why should we take a pay cut if Delta is still going to shrink us?"

"Hold on... (more talk on phone)... ATL says you can have 20 more planes if you take a 12% cut. And we get to rewrite the reserve rules for 30 days after you sign the contract. Otherwise, your planes go to Mesa to make their $70 million lawsuit go away."

"30 days? That's not so long. That's good enough for us. But how can we be sure Delta will give us the planes? Give us guarantees to show the pilot group!"

"Well, if we..er, Delta doesn't give you 20 planes then in four years you can have your 07 pay scale back. But no retro pay."

"Four years? That's not so long. That's good enough for us. We see no loopholes in this deal. Let's take it to the pilots for a vote. We'll get back to you.

"Oh, and you'll drop all pending grievances..."

"Whatever. We have work to do. Can we get S3 priority back?"

"No. And min line value goes away..."

"Stop talking. We have what we came for. These negotiations are over."