Wholly crap guys...there are a lot of assumptions taken from this article.

Someone just said that DAL has hired at least 700 in the last year right? NWA has hired what maybe 300? Do you think maybe the NWA guys are just looking to protect the 400 guys above the recent new hires who have 10 years senority from being stapled below some people who don't even have a year in yet?

I don't care who you work for, but I don't see how you can blame them one bit. No one can tell me that they wouldn't want the same thing if they were in that same position. True mergers are rarely "fair" (whatever that means to you), but you can't tell me that would even be remotely "fair". Besides, this will get ugly as the unions fight to protect their own, just like they are suppose to.

So NWA negotiators want their pensions, 15% raises, DAL work rules, and the junior DAL guys shafted. They think a DAL guy should get no pension, tiny pay raise, same work rules, and the junior guys should take the hit in the integration. I'm glad to see this is "hanging" up because that hardly seems like an equal part of the deal. I think they should keep their pensions and get a larger pay raise than us to bring them up to our rates. The integration needs to be fair to every Delta pilot including the 30 who started class on Monday.

Outrageous demand?
 

That could also backfire. Delta pilots have been known to dump pensions.
If true at all, it's probably a "throw-away" demand -- designed to be traded off for something better, like a lump sum buyout. Pilot negotiators should take all the time they need in forming the list, and not yield to management pressure for a quick deal. Mistakes here would be very hard to correct.

As always the new pilots today want it RIGHT NOW!! 2yr upgrades, 767ERs, even 777. What happened to SO position for 10 yrs then FO. I would have been happy to fly a DC-9 27 yrs ago when I was a new hire.!!

OK, and to be devils advocate...why just every Delta pilot? :D

Frontier - the job paid a lot differently back then. My father made the equivalent of $225,000 a year in 2007 dollars flying the right seat of a DC8 for a bankrupt cargo operation.

FedEx & UPS pay has not incresed, it has simply kept pace with inflation.

I would be happy to fly the panel the rest of my career for an inflation adjusted quarter of a million annually. I'm not blaming the "old" pilots for the pay cut, but hey, most of them made a lot more money for the same work seems they could understand the need to get as far up the pay scale as possible in the least amount of time.

I should have said every pilot, sorry.

Northwest pilots do not have a pension. They only have a 401k.

Last I checked Delta doesn't have any airplanes that require an SO. When you were hired back in the 70's did the old guys say, "I would have been happy to fly the DC-3 when I was a newhire!!"

They have a frozen pension that I believe will give them about 50 FAE. Not quite sure about the specifics, but they do have a frozen pension. Any new guys just get the defined contribution stuff.