NC Resigns--Paging Heiko?
 

August 4, 2015

A Path Forward

Fellow Delta pilots,

As members of the Delta MEC Negotiating Committee, our primary responsibility is to work for the MEC on behalf of all Delta pilots to negotiate improvements to our PWA. Since being elected to the committee, we have worked tirelessly on your behalf to attain an industry-leading contract that recognizes the contributions that the Delta pilots have made to Delta’s current success.

On June 10th, we were able to reach an agreement with the Company on a new contract that was in line with the direction given to us by the MEC. We acknowledge that this tentative agreement was not all that we, nor the MEC, wanted it to be, but we did believe that it provided significant value and was industry leading in many respects. Furthermore, we felt that we had extracted from the Company all that was available at that time. It was a difficult decision for both this committee and for many on the MEC but ultimately, based on all the information available to us, we believed it was appropriate to allow the membership the opportunity to consider and vote on the agreement. However, on July 10th, you, the Delta pilots, spoke very clearly that the tentative agreement did not meet your expectations. We respect that decision.

In order for the Negotiating Committee to be effective at the table, it must have the full confidence of both the pilot group and the MEC. In light of this, we believe it’s in the best interests of the Delta pilots to have a new team put in place in order to help unify our pilot group and regain that confidence. Therefore, while we have appreciated the opportunity to represent you at the negotiating table, we have decided to resign our positions as members of the Delta MEC Negotiating Committee, effective September 15, 2015. By announcing our resignation for a future date, we allow our process to be followed and an orderly election to be held. This will also allow the MEC the time necessary to seek qualified candidates, allow those candidates to bid time off to be at a meeting in the near future, and also provides an opportunity for the new members to get up to speed during a transition period. We will remain available to assist the new committee with this task as needed.

We believe that it is important for our pilot group and the MEC to focus on our contractual goals and not be distracted by internal politics. Our continued presence, without a clear transition path, only adds to that political distraction. As MEC Chairman, Captain Mike Donatelli, said in his July 22 letter to the pilot group, it is time for the Delta pilots to unify. It is also time for the Delta MEC to unify and develop a consensus that they can all support. This is key to our ability to achieve any success in the future.

Until the new team is in place, we commit to continue the hard work and preparation necessary to re-engage with Delta management in order to achieve a contract that reflects the voice of our pilot group. New polling must be done in order for the new committee and MEC to fully understand the current priorities of the Delta pilots. Additionally, analysis of how we reached this tentative agreement is crucial so that mistakes can be avoided in achieving any future agreement.

Once elected, we hope you will give the new committee the support needed to achieve a contract that meets the collective expectations of our pilot group.

Fraternally,

John Morgado, Matt Coons, and Kevin Powell

The honorable thing.

Thanks for your service gentlemen.

One more step forward.

One small step for Delta Pilots, one giant step for the industry. Uh, something like that...

Any point in carrying resolutions un each council directing the med to interview and hire non alpa professional negotiators?

1. Recall all yes voting MEC members that refuse to resign

2. Elect new MEC, Chair (MALONE), NC

3. Take a new, comprehensive survey (You'll get good participation this time)

4. Publish the results of the survey

5. Take that "TA" and drop it into the nearest paper shredder

6. Inform the company that we intend to begin "negotiations" at square one

7. Prepare yourself for a very long wait, the company won't simply waive the surrender flag

8. Start thinking about the possibility of a strike (PEB intervention simply leads to a cooling off period..then you are free to strike)

9. Prepare to lose a month's pay

10. When the correct TA is finally produced, it must include retro-pay to 1/2016

Because we have conceded so much over the past decade, we are not in a position to negotiate. We will be making demands; demands of contractual improvements without surrendering more of the profession.

Turning a large ship around takes time and effort. The momentum has been against us for a decade. That energy is dissipating. Turning it completely around requires a mindset change and complete unity in the pilot group.

I've had enough. Have you?

Excellent, so then the company knows exactly what we are most focused on and willing to pay the most for.

Not going to happen, NMB already said that's off the table. Do you think anyone will let one of the biggest airlines in the world stop working for even a day? C'mon now

Thank you MDH.....that perfectly sums up the reality we all had better be ready to meet...

Sounds, we're not going to "pay" for anything. The point of the post is that we are done paying. It's time to get paid.

This will lead us into:

1. The NMB declaring an impass...at which time you are free to strike or

2. The company, due to staffing and financial pressures, settling the contract

The President can block a strike. But this block isn't permanent. At time you are free to strike. Again and again.

We need new blood. Although Heiko has been winning my heart over, I still remember he helped negotiate C2012. In my opinion 2012 was a POS and the catalyst for events like TA1.

We need NEW BLOOD!

TEN

We need a new approach to negotiating. New blood in the same failed system isn't going to get it done.

We need new blood/people to change the system. We can not continue to recycle the same worker bees, over and over again. Its MADNESS I say:D

TEN

I hope to be proven wrong. I hope that whoever steps up to bat next isn't plagued by the mechanics and dogma apparent with contract negotiations. If the new team can get a fraction of what APC posters believe are entitled, well then you have my gratitude and respect.

Since I know DALPA reads this: :D

Thank you for your service, gentlemen.

IMO, a negotiator should be extremely well versed in the contract. To me, this points to someone who may already be within the "system."

I don't fully understand the mechanics and dogma apparent with contract negotiations. The apparent part I get but, the non apparent part is a mystery. It is clear that the majority of the delta pilots are tired of and done with concessions. We helped the company in the past. Now it's time, past time IMO, to help ourselves.

There isn't a single no voter that doesn't want the delta pilots to get more airplanes and grow the delta pilot flying. The thing is, the company can do that outside of section 6. To me, there are sacred cows...selling scope is off the table.

As far as things the company needs help with for staffing reasons, we can work with those items. They will have to snap back and will have a cost. The company bean counters will have to lose some sleep. We have to be united to make this happen. We are as united as I've seen us since C2K right now.

We can make this happen. Delta can grow. Delta pilots will help with that, happily. We expect to be rewarded too. If the company wants to overreach and play hardball, we can go that route too. This is our company. We are lifers here.

The next Strategic Planning Committee had better produce charts showing how many Billions the Delta Pilot's concessions have contributed to Delta's record earnings, since 2004, and then another chart with Management's pay and benefit concessions since 2004.

We have already given plenty, and we have NOT been restored, by far! Our pay rates today are still 18% below 2004 rates, WITHOUT inflation! And our Retirement funding, as well as just about every other section of our 29 section contract is WORSE today then it was in 2004.

We do NOT have to 'trade' more concessions for pay rates, when we have already given so much, for so long, and the company is making BILLIONS.

This Contract has to be about RESTORATION!

We need a Strategic Planning Committee, and Negotiating Committee, and an MEC Chairman who understands that!

Excuse my rocket surgeon dumbass knowledge of alpa, but is there anything that prevents dalpa from hiring professional, non pilots, to negotiate the contract?

+1

I like Heiko... he's a super nice guy. But make no mistake he is of the same mindset as what we've been dealing with for the past 10 years with "Moakism." He was very proud of what we did with C2012. "New blood" is exactly what we need.

Put Heiko in contract administration if he'll do it... he is ace of the bass with that stuff!

Yes. Arrogance.

And the hit to the lobster and champagne entertainment budget hiring outside help would cause. :))

^^^^^^ this ^^^^^

Not that I'm aware of. However, and I know this is against the grain, professional negotiators want to come to a settlement and they will have to be backed up by pilots with contract administration knowledge. They don't know what is, or is not, important. They negotiate to a settlement.

This isn't baseball.

I'm not opposed to professional negotiators. I just don't know if they are a cure-all. I'm certainly willing to back the MEC if they want to try that route.

C2012 was a good, though not great contract. I think sometimes "POS" just spews from the keyboards of many posters by default. The funn6 thing is that Heiko knows more about this contract than anyone posting here, and Internet tough guy persona aside, NOT ONE of you guys would or could do a better job negotiating.

Probably true. I'm certainly not suggesting I should be a negotiator, as I have no experience , training, OR desire to be directly involved in something like that.

Think about this. If I hire an attorney to represent my interests and he sets off on a tangent and represents me in a way that is contrary to what I specified when I hired him, is the solution for me to fire him and represent myself or is the solution for me to fire him and hire a different attorney?

Again, Heiko's a great guy but he's a big supporter of the proactive appeasement strategy we've been using for the past 10 years. He thinks a 21% increase in pay rates over a 3 year period (C2012)... without accounting for inflation or accounting for the 42% pay cut we took... is something to brag about. In other words, his OBJECTIVE is not restoration but rather getting modest improvements digging out of a bankruptcy reset. I don't think the majority of our pilot group is on board with that kind of thinking anymore. Not with the industry restructured and our company making previously unimagined profits with even better on the horizon.

What he said.

I agree. We need fresh perspectives.

^^^THIS^^^

So spot-on, it's worth repeting, word-for-word.

Agree. No Heiko, no Kingsley. Read their comments on the other boards. Too many ties to the old guard and fear of ruffling feathers. At this point be skeptical of everyone. Would be nice to have a solid Q & A with the candidates before anyone is put into office. If ALPA is going to be our bargaining agent going forward a lot of things/people will need major overhaul, replacement and change!

Jerry,

Told ya so......

Nana nana naaaaa na:p:D (or do I need to find the L&G exchange?)

Anyway, thanks for their service....I wouldn't want that job. Part of the process and we'll see where we go from here.

Ferd

MtE is onto something with NC candidate q&a.

Heiko is a smart and experienced negotiator who is obviously a leading candidate. However, if I were in a position to put together and vote for a NC I would have to have assurances from Heiko and any other candidates they would be committed to and adhere to a strategy and commitment to achieve a TA without sacrificing additional concessions other than those agreed to by the MEC beforehand. And the only one that I think would pass muster at this point is a seat lock of 2 years for new hires. Other than that--nada. When asked for more just show the benefits gained from massive concessions given in the past and the failure of the company to get our inflation adjusted pay rates back to where they were over a decade ago. Include the loss of the DB plan.

During C2012 we were making record profits and still we made concessions. Why would a leopard change his spots? Yes, we're in a better position this time around, but without an assurance that would convince us of his not repeating history why and how could we trust Heiko to not make major concessions?

When I spoke to Heiko prior to the C12 TA vote I asked him why 88/90 pay was not brought up to A320 pay he answered with, "No one asked for it in the survey." I'm not saying he told me an untruth (I didn't put that in my survey response), but I spoke to about five MD88 captains who said they did. And when I asked how much giving up ALV+15 was worth in dollars I got a non-answer. Still he's capable, but obviously not overly impressive, IMHO.

Barring the hiring of professional negotiators which would deliver the best results, I'd say we could do a lot worse than Heiko, but hopefully we can do a lot better.

This negotiating team had to resign. Their credibility was gone.
I join you in thanking them for their service.

The negotiators aren't the main problem however. We have to get MEC reps who are willing to say no to Richard Anderson. We have to get past Moakism and "constructive engagement". For the last several years its only the union that has been constructive. Management has not reciprocated.

The game has changed.
If we want a better deal we are going to have to put labor risk back on the table.
The 11 "yes" reps are never going to do that. Its not in their DNA.

Moakism is over. The pilots rejected it 65-35.

I don't think Anderson and Bastian thought the Delta pilots had it in us to pick a fight.
They were wrong.

Now we need some reps who are willing to throw a punch.

Gunship.... the anecdote you related is very illustrative of the alpa culture.

Proactive and strategic in thought or action. Not.

Glad Heiko voted no for POS2015. Beyond that I'm really not enamored with his record. Btw, he penned the survey questions which I thought were slanted. He claims he was just doing the best he could. I think we could have done much better than those questions.

ALPA talks about unity but most of what they do is geared toward apathy so they can do what they do behind closed doors. NO reason meetings shouldn't be video webcast with chat input. That's a game changer for getting the membership involved.

Of course you don't speak to sensitive info just like RA defers during earnings calls. For most info regarding where we need to go, live online is where it should be. Would save a ton of money and be more effective. Broadcast from ATL offices. Put guys up in the training hotel on Virginia ave. Don't blow wads of cash on Chris Ruth and Alcohol. Membership dues money is sacred in my book.

Could also open live polling for major items. If any (including a new MEC) avoid live conferencing in 2015/16 then beware of business as usual that dissuades pilot involvement and encourages everything being decided by a handful of "smartest guys in the room". :cool: :mad:

Lastly, the notion everything regarding what we want needs to be kept secret is a joke. We've done that these last few passes and it's been a disaster. I think we would be better served talking publicly about the whole lot....what was lost during BK, what is required to get back with interest and be very public about our goals...get everybody on board.

MtE.......right on.

I suspect that most of the best and brightest who you might want to see on the neg committee will chose not to participate. They understand the process and what lies ahead. Why take a cut in pay, work far harder and more then likely end up vilified by the pilot group. I hope we can find some great replacements but I am not holding my breath.

Fixed your post.

And if they don't participate, that's a good thing.
We want nothing more to do with the people you consider "best and brightest".

Sailing.

Thank you. You have just articulated the best case for the use of non pilot, paid professionals, to the maximum extent possible.

We send 30M+ a year in dues to alpa. That would pay for 100 $300k/year real life 'experts'.

Who would also pay for their own lunches.

Heiko was a godsend when he was on the scheduling committee. He'd be fantastic there or in contract admin. Not sure he's the right negotiator.

I'll follow the lead from the 8 MEC "no" voters. If they are ok with him, I will be too.

Bob, if you hire professionals and they do their due diligence I am fairly confident you will not like what they tell you they view as achievable.

Sailing....

Okay then.... we are back to firing alpa, keeping the dues money in our pocket, and letting the company draft our pwa.

P.S. with your assertion....did you mean to reveal the fact only the mediocre among us are managing our representation and negotiations?