Very true. JC screwed a lot of folks.

Delta pilot animosity towards JC Lawson's CMR MEC and the RJDC may not be well understood by former NWA pilots, but the sentiments remain to this day. To what extent it affects Delta hiring of CMR pilots, I do not know. Probably their ill conceived strike has a bigger affect on that. But either one is not going to be favorable for them. Too bad. (said with sarcasm)

You really wanna judge the Comair guys for striking to improve regional pay and QOL? You mainline guys are the ones always biatching that regional guys shouldn't work for so little (after you gave up scope with virtually no conditions to prevent whipsaw). So criticize JD Lawson's thuggishness in dealing with the DAL MEC if you will, but the Comair strike was a giant step in the right direction that sadly has not been duplicated since and therefore led to their present distress.

"...Comair strike was a giant step in the right direction".

Uh huh. How's that working out for ya?

The successful negotiations before the strike were a step in the right direction. The strike itself yielded virtually no contract improvement, and did nothing but satisfy JC's bloated ego and shoot the rest of the pilot group in the foot. But that's old news. I'm sure it has nothing to do with why nobody wants to buy CMR today.

I still have no idea why mainline did not want to fly RJ's in the beginning but wants to now. I just cannot seem to wrap my brain around that one.

When they first showed up on the scene, they were a TP replacement and nothing more. They never imagined that MD-88, DC-9 and 737 routes would be replaced with 50 seaters. Just like NWA was sure that no DC-9 routes would be lost with the E175 at Compass. Now, if it's a short haul that used to be flown by a DC-9, MD-88 or similar air frame, it's pretty much always an RJ.

Wait just a minute chief, he didn't say that the Delta pilots had anything against Comair pilots because of their strike. He hypothesized that it might affect their chances of getting an interview which is decided by management, not us.

Our heartburn comes from the RJDC seniority grab attempt and the big F.U. we received WRT preferential interviews and hiring when we were furloughed, and the fact that although Lawson was the ring leader, the pilot group seemed to be fine with it.

Lastly, the big scope concessions were given in bankruptcy with a gun to our head. Believe me, it's those very concessions that kept myself and others out nearly 5 years, so we're very familiar with how they came about. Scope wasn't simply given away for the hell of it.

This has been repeated so many time now that everyone takes it as fact - I do not. Maybe a "majority" of DAL pilots did not want to be bothered with RJ's, maybe not, but I would be interested to know what the junior DAL FO's at the time thought. One thing that you can be sure off - opinions would have differed greatly.

So when you say "mainline" you are probably correct if speaking about the wishes of DALPA, but I bet a lot of FO's would have liked to fly the RJ as their initial Captain seat, keeping the flying in-house. Maybe there is a lesson in here somewhere about assuming a monolithic school of thought based on what the senior guys think. FWIW I think the current DALPA is doing a good job (current NC make-up for example) of giving weight to what the junior guys want/think.

And secondly, if what you say is correct, the short answer would be because DALPA has realized what a major screw-up its original philosophy on RJs has been.

Scoop

Good point - also, back in 2000-2001 when the RJs were really growing, there were two things that we don't have now: very high top-end pay scales and a defined benefit retirement plan based somehow on the top-end pay.

I wasn't here at the time, but I could a situation where the company said, "well, you can fly these tiny RJs for low pay, or you can give us scope relief for them and we'll increase the top end pay (and thus retirement)".

It's possible that the cost analysis in 2000-2001 made it financially worthwhile to all the Delta pilots (from top to bottom of the senority list) to allow the RJs to be outsourced vs flying them in house.

And this is why it is catastrophic to sell scope. Money and trinkets are EASILY taken away. Just come up with an excuse dejour. Terrorism, rolling snakeyes at the hedge table, bad economy, good economy. Doesn't matter...any manufactured excuse will do. Now the company HAS scope and they HAVE your pay raise and they HAVE your pension. You got bubkis.

The above situation is a premium example. Sell your soul for quick bucks now, and you will soon find yourself on the wrong end of a fool's bargain.

Nu