There are a variety of issues here so I will try to address them separately.

First, no one wants to make it easy to violate scope, so I don't know why you start with this emotional statement. Both the DAL and NWA contracts allowed management to own subsidiaries as long as those subsidiaries flew permitted aircraft. ASA, Comair, Compass, Mesaba, were all examples of this. Now I understand your argument that this is NOT how you want our Section 1 to read, but in fact Section 1 was not violated by any of those transactions, at either airline, so let's not start with a scope violation.

I don't know what ASA's section 1 was so I can't comment on that. Certainly if the ASA pilots felt their contract was violated they should have filed a grievance. Now the part about rumors and people leaving ALPA. Bunk. A PID wasn't initiated because Delta management had the right operate ASA separately and they did not want to merge the two entities. The people that own and run the companies make these decisions, not the employees. It is that simple. All the rest is hogwash. If the ASA pilots wanted to force a merger, all they had to do was buy Delta and ASA and then they could do whatever they want. Until then, the real owners get to make those decisions.

Delta bought Northwest (or Northwest bought Delta, I really don't care) because each airline was weaker alone rather than together. After that transaction was announced, Delta and Northwest management knew that they had to integrate the seniority lists because both contracts made it mandatory. Our seniority lists were merged, each contract was followed, no Scope violation.

Okay, I admit that is was awful when ASA and Comair were hiring and Delta was furloughing. We tried initially to set up a flow through (back when we all were hiring) but were told absolutely no by ASA and Comair MEC's. Flow through is not the answer but it could have been a first step. That step was never taken and it was a shame. You need to answer this one question: If employees could just merge companies on their own, why didn't ASA and Comair pilots do their own transaction? Why wait for Delta pilots? Why did you allow this whipsaw to continue?

My post was only to correct the glaring inaccuracies posted by you and Mesabah. I did not state how we should move forward. Make me king of the world and I would work to merge all connection carriers into Delta. I am not king of the world so we will have to work one step at a time. Certainly posting fantasy renderings of the past will not help in that process one little bit.

Who wins? :D




.....

Are we married?:p

My wife. :D

This post is so factually incorrect that it might as well be pure fiction. I am sure others will jump in. Just to keep a couple of key facts. Delta was and is permitted to operate feeder airlines. DALPA has no say at all in a choice to merge those airlines. We don't today and never did. Management decides to merge companies not pilots unless we have specific clauses in our contract.
In the case of NWA an Delta both airlines had specific clauses in their contract that required the lists and airlines be merged. Management had no choice.
It was never a option for Dalpa to merge any feeder airlines seniority list into ours. Management maintains and controls the seniority list in compliance with our contract. The best we could have done is ask management to please merge the airlines and the answer would always have been not a chance in hell from management.

I'm there ;)

Oh come on, don't spoil it. I was gonna watch! :confused: :D

Just finished watching "Taking Chance" on HBO, a story about a Marine LtCol, played by Kevin Bacon, who escorts the remains of a Marine killed in Iraq back to Wyoming. Very moving.
At the end for Memorial Day, HBO scrolled the names of every American killed in combat since 2001.
Please see it if you haven't already.

+1.............

I'll admit to have taken some editorial license and including reference to a rumor, but the unauthorized version is more accurate than the justifications given for ALPA's actions which put Delta pilots on the street (and which could put them there again). Basically, your version is the Delta MEC was incapable of doing what the Pinnacle MEC did with Colgan.
With three part harmony you each accept alter ego replacement of our pilots. Using your logic, if the Delta board decides to join a "SkyTeam" conglomerate it is up to management's whim how they staff their airline.As you know, Delta is permitted to operate feeder airlines under our contract. Our contract defines what is Delta pilots' flying and (unfortunately) what is not Delta flying. Your quote that the Delta pilots "have no say at all" just is not true. DALPA could, if it wanted, close the scope loophole it created & ratified. (granted it might not be pragmatic to try to close the loophole, but we do have a say in the matter)

Management does decide whether it wants to merge corporations, but labor has the legal right to fight alter ego replacement of workers. A right given to us under the alter ego provisions of the National Labor Relations Act and which have been upheld in many circumsptances under the RLA. ALPA has chosen when it wants to merge employee groups and when it does not. In the case of ASA and Comair, ALPA chose not to merge pilots at the 2000 ALPA Board of Directors' meeting. A result of that decision was the furloughing of Delta pilots later in the decade while the alter ego replacement carriers proliferated.

Your thinking would be disastrous if Delta announced the sale of our company to SkyTeam Air Lines and the French leadership decided to replace our seniority list with (pick your alter ego). Perhaps you can not imagine a scenario where D-ALPA isn't the king maker. Yet there may be a day when Delta isn't the consolidator.

If karma exists (and I think it exists in your pronouncements of our impotence) ... we're screwed. I would hope you would reassess the threat of alter ego, as well as our role in its creation and elimination.