My letter to the Council 44 reps.

Hermon, Dave, Armando and David

The irrefutable fact is that no TA on C2015 will see the light of day without your support.

With great power comes great responsibility.


For over 4 years I have been expressing concern that once the hiatus from no growth and little to no pilot retirements due to the increase in pilot retirement age to 65 ends, the volume of training required by 8 pilot bases and 9 fleets will be challenging, if not insurmountable.

As you are all well aware, Captain Dickson as well as the flight ops staff encouraged our executives to begin hiring long before it actually started.

Did they delay intentionally? Did they create a crisis just to wrest concessions from us yet again in C2015?

The answers do not matter. Here we are and what are we going to do? We all have the same desires, the same goals. Together with our EMT we want Delta to be wildly successful.

Given the fact that our executives were warned over and over to begin hiring sooner, should we consider permanent concessions to our PWA? Haven't we sacrificed enough?

The solution is to grant temporary relief. For example, increase the ALV 5 hours per month for 6 months. The additional 5 hours will be at premium pay and management must upgrade x number of captains per month.

Granting permanent concessions in this environment is unthinkable and irresponsible.

I urge you four to use the power entrusted to you by the Delta pilots to broker a deal that earns a 19-0 vote from the MEC. Anything less will be a large mistake.

Alaska and American are openly hostile to Delta. A C2015 that garners a unanimous vote from our MEC will ignite a fire that will ensure we stay on top while our competitors flounder in a labor nightmare.

A 10-9 vote followed by a roadshow like 2012 will be opposed with a force none of us can imagine and even if it passed MEMRAT is it worth disenfranchising half the pilot group?

You can win the battle, but..........

I had zero doubt the four of you can use your incredible leadership skill to attain a 19-0 yes vote on the TA.

That is the goal.

Richard Anderson is the best CEO in the air line industry and one of the best CEOs in the world because he SETS GOALS.

It is easy to vilify the NYC reps or the CVG VC and pass the TA with your power. But how hard is it with record profits to build consensus and get a deal that is unanimous? If you choose to embrace this goal, I am 100% sure you can accomplish it.

If not now, when?

Best

Jerry

Thank you, nice to be here. I prefer math to rhetoric. I do not rationalize rumor, cloud anything, or mislead anyone. After observing the discussion here I presented a scenario based on other posts. Increasing constants and eliminating variables for an equation makes it possible to find results in a quest for "X". (remember Algebra 1?). That being understood, do you dispute the numerical result of the aforementioned scenario?

I mention no such thing as "giving anything away". I am fully aware of what was lost before and during bankruptcy. Bankruptcy stinks, go ask the investors who lost everything they had in DAL! The pilots received a Note, Claim, Equity, pay raises tied to profitability, PS plan, D&S fund to name a few....Let's get back to what you were alluding to with your first question though. Given a choice, which would you prefer in your personal saving account:

A)A promise to pay you $1,200 more than a year from now if I don't have other expenses..
OR
B)$100 every month all year long.

Why there is no hurry
 

Folks- there is absolutely no hurry for us. We could conceivably have a PS payout this year close to 40% and 50% for next year. That's like a 40% or 50% raise for doing nothing. Don't you see? That's why DAL management is in such a big hurry to get this contract done. They realize that our PS payout far exceeds any raise that they will ever negotiate. So give us an ok raise but cut PS (so they can also reduce the payout to the other work groups). That is their objective and they will do everything they can to sell us that we are getting an amazing deal. I can promise that DAL management wants to sell us on guaranteed money over the uncapped PS money. If we agree, what appears to be a pay raise will actually be a pay cut when future PS is taken into account. So our great contract will be nothing more than an illusion masked in a so-called pay raise that is really a pay cut in disguise. Folks, don't fall for it. Our golden goose is PS and ever more so looking into the future.

Please show us all how you reach that conclusion.

Jeez....We are definitely close to a TA :rolleyes:

I actually am quite matter of fact about C2015. I like the way you maneuvered around that with playing the emotion card though, nifty trick.
Anyway,

Lumberg/AV8/Trip7.......How's it going?

Just calculate our PS on $7 billion and then on $10 billion based upon the current formula- because that is where we are heading. DAL corporate debt is declining fast and because of improved financial condition can be refinanced at a very low interest rate. You don't want debt to get too low or you become a takeover target. So after debt is retired and with money saved from refinancing existing debt, the money you were using to pay down and service debt flows right to the bottom line. Furthermore, as older employees retire they are replaced with newer less expensive employees, so over time overall labor costs (on a per pilot basis) will also decline. Our brand image has improved to the point that people will pay more to fly Delta. That trend should continue into the future with an ever improving product and our fleet is renewed. PS is our ace card now and I believe ALPA is going to negotiate it away.

Excellent deflection! You, you're good, you....

I don't presume to know if we are close to a TA or not. I have no indications that it is near. You must know something the rest of us do not.

Do you agree or disagree with the math in the aforementioned scenario, yes or no. "quite matter of fact about C2015" does not answer thay question (not sure what is does actually). Is that supposed to be a "..maneuvered around that.." of some kind?

Oh boy, sounds like av8 is back.

Ah, now I see where you have strayed. Allow me to help. Section 3.I of the PWA explains the math on how our "profit sharing plan" is calculated. We are compensated based on Pre-tax income, not net profit.

• PTIX of 0-2.5 Billion accrues 10% towards the pool. The max is $250 million.
• PTIX 2.5 billion and above accrues at 20%, the max is unlimited.
• Pilots get roughly 1/3 of the total accrued amount.

For 2014, PTIX was roughly 6.75 Billion. We expect an increase from 2014, let's be generous and use 20% YOY. That means a PTIX of 8.1 billion dollars. So we subtract 2.5 from 8.1 to get 5.6 Billion. 20% of that is 1.12 Billion; now add in the 250 million from the 0-2.5 accrual.

We now have $1.37 billion in the pool of money to be given out.
1.37 divide by 3 is $456.67 million.
Pilots are $25 million for each 1% of pay.
Section 3.I would pay the pilots around 18.25%.

In order for 2015 to pay the pilots 40% as you allege, the pilot portion would need to reach at least $1 billion, so the total pool would have to reach $3 billion. DAL's PTIX would have to be $16.25 billion in 2015 for your math. It is highly unlikely we will see a 240% increase in PTIX YOY.

In order to get a 50% payout, DAL's PTIX would have to reach $20 billion.

To answer your $10 billion profit (do you mean profit or PTIX) if PTIX: It would mean a PS payment of 23.3%