"Why make Billions, when you can make... MILLIONS!" :D

More large RJs, you can't make this stuff up.

Latest info from "Top Men" in negotiating department...

All of this is somewhat fluid info and quite frankly gets watered down when passed from person to person in the chain... But as we are all looking for info ... here ya go:

-- Supposedly the AF grievance will remain separate from C2015

-- There is a want from management to bring 90-100 seat RJ to mainline ... (which is a good thing.. maybe even give bigger pay bump to mainline RJ pilots to get more pilots to bid the seat) ... We would have to give additional 76seat RJs to DCIs (bad thing) ... Don't know exact numbers of aircraft hulls in the the horse trade ... Management wants to park more 50 seaters and have DCI fly more 76seaters. They need us to help fix DCI debacle/shortage.

-- Important thing to remember ... Is this EMB 100seater a growth aircraft? Or replacement for the Md88/319? ... At a lower pay rate? ... I'm not willing to do anymore outsourcing to DCIs and I'm not in favor of a replacement aircraft at a lower rate ... Think 737s replacing higher paying 757s ... Or 350s replacing 747s ... or 717 replacing 319/320/md88.

--Plans for new sim to be built for Training Dept in ATL for EMB 100seater for mainline.

--The devil in the details will be to pay attention to areas of TA which allow staffing reductions to help alleviate training issues going forward ... Big push to reduce overall head count needs. (not sure of all the details there). Company is in a bind going forward .. Huge leverage for us.

--Pay numbers I posted yesterday may not include the trade for PS ... Numbers may go higher once PS trade is added to equation ... not sure what that trade would equate to yet ... Idea is to throw money our way and make up for it in staffing reductions.

--At this point we could expect a TA as soon as next week ... Then a week for DALPA to determine how to "sell/spin" it to us with it released to us minions by end of month ... maybe before Memorial weekend ... Same timeline as C2012.

--Sorry Ripper, Looks like BOBsan was in the know on TA timing and you will owe him a dinner/Hotel stay.

Thats all I can remember from conversation for now ... Can't guarantee accuracy 100% ... but it's in the ballpark.

As always ... Don't shoot messenger ... Mo info, Mo betta!

IMO opinion there is zero leverage as far as staffing goes for any legacy airline. There are thousands and thousands of ATP rated pilots currently flying jets at 121 operations. Delta and other legacies are top tier when it comes to applicants' wants. I'm not even sure places like spirit would have a hard time finding applicants in the coming years. The only reason there is a shortage at the rj level now is because of compensation and the RAA is doing their best to get the mins lowered again to avoid paying more money. I'd say delta is well above the compensation threshold to attract candidates.

I want every Alpa airline pilot to make more money including delta but staffing I don't believe is giving the pilots any leverage.

Give your reps a call and get informed. Management is in a self directed staffing crisis. They are all out trying to gut our PWA to reduce staffing. This is not a secret.

I do agree it is not the lack of applicants. It is the lack of planning by our execs and failure to listen to Steve Dickson when he told them to start hiring.

Now somehow the crisis is our problem. They want things like they did in C2012. More ALV, TLV, eliminate seniority list instructors, CDOs, take away first officers bidding with line check airman, pay no credit for vacation, more 76 seat RJS for DCI carriers, less sick time, less JV scope protection, etc.

Shouldn't the answer be... continue to hire 150/mo and staff with GS & GSWC until they correct their problem?

There is a conspicuous absence of "staffing" concessions (sick leave, freezes, banding, etc) in all of these rumors.

Methinks that's a very bad sign. They're already trying to bury and gloss over the **** sandwiches.

How about asking for more 76 seat Rjs for DCI when we are making $6 Billion dollars?

Now that is respect!!

I am 100% opposed to one more RJ. But if that is the will of the body, we need a minimum of 30% date of signing without touching profit sharing.

Which survey question said, "Do you want to grant some more scope relief for the DCI carriers?"

You have my vote for MEC Chairman.

Ooops we don't get to vote.

DPA president!!

Yes, there is a staffing problem. Based on the looming retirements and growth plan, they needed to continue hiring in 2011-2013 but made the decision based on available information they had at the time to to keep staffing low for costs. When they finally began hiring again in 2014, they quickly found themselves in the region of reverse command.

There are plenty of pilots to hire from, and surely if they could keep 150 pilots/month they can dig themselves out of the 3yr hiring deficit in a few years.

However, there is limited capacity in the pipeline to turn pilots into Delta pilots. It seems like the selection/interview pipeline has gotten in front of the wave a little bit. The indoc-thru-sim pipeline is at/over max capacity, though it is being built up and supplemented. And now I think they are seeing some bottlenecks in OE capacity.