My meaning was if it was our problem and not a company problem. IE, if the company did not have trouble attracting qualified applicants anyway I'd support negotiating for this.

No. (empty spaces)

It angers me to see the selfishness and singlemindedness of some of our "brothers". If the company was to come to DALPA with an LOA to bring new hire pay in line with United presumably to "fix their problem", the impression I get is that the ALPA's response would be words to the effect of "ok fine, if that's something you want, what are you willing to give us in return?" Effectively saying what's it worth to you to be able to pay some of us more! That's ludicrous! Anytime you can secure an incremental improvement for zero cost, you take it! That sets a new bar for future negotiations! They're not going to agree to an LOA where they have to give every pilot on the list another $20,000! And the reason that came in to play at Endeavor was not because we couldn't fill classes, it was because we were losing 60 FO's a month to other regionals and we were forced to downgrade captains to staff the right seat! Totally different problem!

Let me see if I understand you position. You want DALPA to allow the company to "fix the training pay" for 800-1000 or so non-voting new hire pilots during negotiations and weaken the bargaining position of of the remaining 12,000+ pilots.... Yet they are the selfish and short sighted ones??? Ok thanks. I am a new hire and I don't want anything to do with this. Also it will hurt us all as we come off 1st year pay and the company continues to drag its feet on meaningful contract and QOL improvements because you already helped fix one of their biggest needs for a short term pay bump.

If it's really a problem (like, the sky is falling, and UAL is sucking up all the talent, woe is me), than DAL will approach us, and not the other way around.

When they wanna fix it, they will open their wallets.

No LOAs or MOUs during section 6. Period.

^^^ That right there is the correct answer. ^^^

If new hires are choosing other airlines over Delta, that's a problem that Delta created, not DALPA. Only Delta can fix the problem, and they could fix it tomorrow with zero input from DALPA.

But why should the company fix it for free, if they can 'negotiate' a fix where 13000 pilots give up something for it?

Does it anger you more than the company lighting 6 Billion dollars on fire right in front of you for zero return because they don't have anywhere else they care to put it, while keeping all 13,000 pilots (including new hires) at significantly below peer set rates? Does it anger you that they potentially will be so hell bent on concessions for a small raise and a few COLAs that they will laugh in our faces taunting "a contract is a contract" while UAL is over 15% above us with similar profit sharing and no concessions to get it as they imply they will hide behind the RLA for years and years and not even give us parity to our biggest and lesser performing competitor?

No LOA's or side letters in section 6, especially for something they need. New hire pay (as well as their pay after their first year) will be fixed when we get a new PWA that will pass MEMRAT, and chock full of concessions doesn't meet that threshold.

I think your heart is in the right place. But I don't think you understand the intricacies of negotiations under Section 6. Side letters and MOAs at this point would truly be counterproductive. As someone keeps stating...it's chess, not checkers.