Well now its in print. Not to smart. Any work slowdowns or stoppages could land them in court now. Even DAL has seen that with our "sickout" in '99. I would hope they would fight now along side us.

Heck, one good thing is that you would get long layover hotels and not the LaQuinta 100 yards from LGA anymore! Our long layover hotels have good bars that will allow us to hopefully "celebrate" our collective gains that will come shortly.

this is just a silly post.

you hope that nwa would fight along side you guys. do you mean fighting for the joint contract that was agreed upon or just your contract. you'll fight together until you say screw it I'll get mine and forget you guys. (I guess pilots shouldn't be surprised in this since you sold out the younger pilots and gave up the 70 seaters in your last contract for those past pay raises. by the way how did that work out for you guys)

you had a joint contract and only needed to work on the seniority list. now you have neither and actually said it's ok to have a b-scale as long as I'm on the A-scale side. way to go, you should be proud...

is there some side note that will gives both airlines collective gains (to celebrate) or is it just on the delta side right now? what's the incentive to bring nwa's pay up now? the delta pilot group and management just gave the nwa pilot group the finger.

I guess alpa members shouldn't expect much from other alpa members. they've allowed whipsawing at the regionals and now it looks like it's moving to the majors...

Ok, I'm confused: When one airline pays over 3 billion for another, is this a merger or an acquisition?

Well, although 17% is less than I would have expected, after you go back and look at the numbers, it puts payscales pretty close to SWA(granted I'm not comparing DL 737 pay, since that is still significantly lower) and FedEx(not counting retirement benefits or FO pay). This is definitely a stepping stone back towards better pay and benefits, and maybe you can negotiate more to get NWA guys on board when that integration happens. Every little bit counts when American and CAL are in the middle of contract negotiations. I think the biggest problem is FO pay is still way too low. Dunno what will happen if CAL and UA announce a merger since CAL just opened up section 6 negotiations this last week.

This merger stands to be the merger heard round the world (for airlines) if it can pan out correctly.

You know what, it kinda sux what DL did to NWA pilots by working their own deal separately, but when it comes down to it, DL had more leverage, and they sold some of it in order to get some benefits out of the merger. When it comes down to it, its business, not personal. One week from now, the same might have happened without any benefits to either group.

I'm not saying NWA pilots should be happy, but guess what, they still have their seniority. And isn't what that's what the big issue has been all along?

Or is the truth coming out, they wanted the DL pay benefits, plus keep their pension, plus keep their seniority.

TBD.

Eric, We never had a joint contract. We had a tentitive agreement contingent on several other things being accomplished. We were unable to complete the main one which was the SLI. No SLI no joint contract. They went hand and hand and Delta management made that very clear. Without the advantage of labor peace the joint contract was not affordable. Delta management also made it clear that the joint contract would not be in force if arbitration was required. Get your opener from your reps and print it here. I heard from my reps approx. what it was. Get it in writing from yours and print it here. I can tell you they probably won't release it because they can't defend it.

At this point we have to go forward and negotiate a joint contract for both of us. Yes we modified are current contract via LOA 19. You should be very happy we accomplished that because it sets a floor for negotiations on a new combined contract. We had no legal or other right to attempt to modify your contract. You can enter negotiations on that at any time with NWA management. At the same time we will both be in joint contract negotiations with Delta management. Lets hope we get a great contract.

Delta pilots are the best just ask them. Since the fall of good ole Eastern, Delta pilots have always looked after fellow ALPA pilots. All I can say is what goes around comes around. Good luck with the red tails.

[quote]
Or is the truth coming out, they wanted the DL pay benefits, plus keep their pension, plus keep their seniority.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

At least enlighten us as to what airline you work for? We have an interim TA that the JOINT contract will be built off of. I'd rather negotiate higher off an already higher amount than try and go for a moonshot. If you are at any carrier you should be happy in that for the first time in seven years someone actually rose rates and stopped the descent. AA, CAL will all have better positions to negotiate from. And when the JOINT contract is settled they will even go higher.

No... spoken by someone that has his eyes open...

Or glued completely shut with management koolaid.