Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
ACL65,
Your concern echos my concern voiced over the last couple of years.
Our MEC found reasons why ASA and Comair flying was not Delta flying. Same with Mid West and Compass. Now my bet is that we will witness the same thing with Delta Private Jets and Republic. Our MEC does not want us to perform small jet flying, they want us to profit from it none the less.
The huge risk is that schemes that rely on outsourcing to generate unearned profits generally fail when the outsource'r are they themselves outsourced. If Delta management will do what they have done to subsidiaries like Comair and Compass, or Mesaba back in the dark days, we have no reason to believe they would not do it to us in a heartbeat.
Delta Private Jets already operates aircraft which FAR EXCEED our scope's weight limits. Our scope is absolutely clear, our union's lack of enforcement is also crystal clear.
So what when Delta Private Jets hires a couple of retired 737, A330, A320 and 747 Captains to fly charters? Are we going to grieve it then? What about the past practice we are establishing?
We need the acknowledgement from our MEC that outsourcing is poison. It is a systemic risk to the survival of our pilot list and our association. They've got to stop trading in this crap.
I looked at their website a few months ago, and realized that they were operating jets over 65K, which is in violation of our section one. I do not know the progress of this issue to date, but I do know that it has been discussed.
Needless to say, it is my opinion that this falls under our section one limitations, and is being looked at by our reps. I hope to see a successful resolution to this and the Republic issue.
Everyone that I talk to realizes that these issues separately are important, and together they are crucial. The RJET item is important as it relates to Delta Air Elite for one important reason. Delta is structured with the airline over the holding company in the corporate makeup.
Delta Air Lines --> Delta Holdings; which would become;
Delta Holdings---> Delta Air Lines
---> Delta Air Elite
---> DCI and so on.
Right now they are in clear violation, but if nothing is done about Republic a shifting of the corporate structure with Delta Holdings being over Delta Air Lines, and Delta Air Elite, with DAE reporting to the holding company means that the precedence of Republic will be used against us for allowing Delta Air Elite to operate outside of our Section One.
These two issues intermingle a lot more than most people realize. There are far reaching implications on how lawyers could argue this as we go forward. A good defense would realize that manning the offense today with existing findings of a third party is good business in the defense of our contract. This is how I have related it to the reps as well.