Originally Posted by
FloridaGator
OK Slowplay. First notice that you are the only one on here standing up for the merger fund theft. I have no interest in getting into an anonymous online spat so I will do my best to keep this retort civil on a subject that I am very emotionally heated about.
Thanks for the civil and informative response.
As Tim pointed out, I'm a Delta guy, and I'm not standing up for the merger fund. I've paid into my own but don't know much about yours. My question was why you guys recalled an MEC Chairman 13 days before his term ended. I pointed out that PCL also recalled theirs and wondered what was up. The merger stuff didn't fit in with the timeline as I knew it to cause a recall.
Originally Posted by
FloridaGator
I was in downgrade training in November 2008. Ironically, I was able to meet the brand new president of Comair and ask the pointed questions. "If Mesa has its contract cancelled by Delta, would I re-upgrade?" The answer from Bendo was NO!. He told me that Comair would be lucky to still be operating a year from then....
That was when it all began. November 2008. I was told by Todd (Contract Study Committee) that I had nothing to worry about. Things were happening at the union level that were going to make it all ok. He wouldn't say more because of a non-disclosure statement... and pointed me to one of our reps, Eric (Soon to be MEC?).
Eric spilled the beans. Said that by working behind the scenes with ALPA and putting together an application with the NLRB we could "Force" a merger with Compass and Mesaba. (Yes they were considered wholly owned subsidiaries of Delta at that time) I brought that info back to Todd and he was surprised that I was given that Top Secret Information. He decided to add to what I now knew and said that we had only one shot at this and we had to get it right. IF we were successful we could have a huge company and our seniority could be saved....
The truth is that no MEC can force a merger.......You can argue that our MEC didn't know that they were incapable of forcing a merger. But that sounds stupid. ALPA national could tell them that. The attorneys they were interviewing could tell them that. Why tell people in the crew room that you can do this if you don't have a definitive answer in cold hard fact?
Here is the reality check. Nobody wants to buy Comair. The legacy costs are too high. Everything is too old. The planes....too much maintenance. The FA's, FO's & CA's.... very senior. Why not just hire off the street at 1st year pay? What about Comair is worth buying?
The Senior Captains need to ride this thing into the ground and make as much pay as they can for as long as they can.
The FO's need to get out of there. JetBlue, Virgin America, different Regional, etc.
The FA's are likely in a similar situation as the captains.
I am sorry to sound grim. But a little reality shouldn't be treated as toxic.
The fair and right thing to do would be to return the merger fund 100%. The F.O.s and furloughs would get screwed in a merger so why have them pay for their own screwing? Everybody needs to bring pressure on the new MEC to liquidate this thing.
A merger fund can always be collected when and if a merger or sale is announced. (which there wont be)
Thanks for that info and additional background. It brings up several points to me which I'll address below, but it doesn't answer the root question: why a recall?
I'm not clear on who you're mad at and think lied to you...Eric (future MEC Chair), former MEC Chair Lamprater, or somebody else?
If your MEC really thought a sale, merger or fragmentation was in the offing, then they probably spent some of that merger money getting prepped. My point was they had legitimate reasons to be prepared, as 2 of the 3 wholly owned DCI's were sold. Remember that ALPA dues can't be used for merger stuff...each pilot group has to do its own assessment. I think the combined merger fund at DAL/NWA was over $2 million.
Your assessment of the state of CMR seems to agree with Delta's decision to downsize and "pretty up" your airline. However, in 2008 when the merger fund was collected you still had over 100 airplanes and no plans to downsize had been announced. Delta's merger with NWA became public April 14, 2008, but Delta also considered and talked extensively with UAL. Maybe your MEC had advance warning that they were for sale as well.
As to forcing a merger, I have to agree with you. How can you force a company to do that? I'm not a lawyer, though I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Thanks again for the answers.