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Old 09-17-2010 | 09:26 AM
  #47844  
sailingfun
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Originally Posted by alfaromeo
Sure Carl, red is gray and yellow white and we decide which is right, and which is an illusion.

For the rest, in order to decide on a direction forward you at least need to get your facts straight about the past. It took about a 13% increase in total compensation to completely bring the NWA contract completely to the DAL contract. Whether that is better or not you can make the call.

For anyone outside the process or anyone inside NWA, there are few who would say that the NWA pilots came out of bankruptcy as a unified group or a unified MEC. Most would say the the DAL pilots and DAL MEC were unified.

Everyone that had a front row seat to this new labor paradigm in the merger knows that Lee was the guy that created the plan and the Delta MEC worked to create the environment to close the deal. It surely took both sides working together, but there are few who wouldn't say that the Delta side was driving the ship.

This doesn't mean that fDAL pilots are better than fNWA pilots, these discussions always end up in "I'm better than you" arguments that have no purpose. It also doesn't mean that DAL always had better leadership than NWA, these things ebb and flow and will again in the future. My opinion is that we had better leadership going through bankruptcy and through this deal and the results back this up. You can either agree or disagree, but at least deal with facts when you are trying to decide your future. We live in an age of truthiness and spin, where we can actually have people believe there is some Islamic invasion trying to take over America and burning Kurans is the only way to stop them. Let's not deceive ourselves in a similar fashion, it rarely leads to good outcomes.

The other thing Carl did not mention was the long length of the NWA contract with zero raises. The Delta contract had raises and a short amendable date. It would have expired last spring had we not signed a extension with the JC agreement. The extension was the biggest reason I voted no.