sailingfun

I spoke with a friend this morning at NWA about how paranoid everyone at NWA seems to be. His reply was that I had to understand it was their Heritage. Fear of what the other guy was doing has dominated every aspect of their MEC and culture for the last 20 years. He said it would take a long time if ever to change it and Delta would have to learn to live with it.

320FOB

You forgot to BOLD that part.
Nice. Looks like your guys can't stick to a position on arbitration.

staplegun

You forgot to read that part...


Nice. Looks like you guys are going to cut off your nose to spite your face...




Kevin

tsquare

Thing is, they are cutting off all of our collective noses, and it's senseless.

Carl Spackler

Really??

Carl

tsquare

Of course then I read the chairman's letter, and got even more confused. What I think the lieutenant meant to say was: They are opposed to it as a first order of business. They would rather negotiate the joint contract and SLI outside of what will be an arbitration disaster. BUT... since it appears that we are now on the path of a traditional merger, we may have to accept it... down the road. Hopefully it won't come to that. But that's just my conjecture laden opinion.

320FOB

You apparently have lost focus: the entire thread is about whether or not DALPA has reversed their position on arbitration. You seem to think that todays letter from runaMoak means NWALPA "are liars!". I seem to think that it puts in writing that DALPA is now OK with arbitration......the same expedited arbitration that we offered when the SLI talks broke down and DALPA rejected. Apparently it's OK now, post-announcement, but wasn't OK before. Why would that be? Could it have anything to do with the fact that now, post-announcement, DALPA has a cozy deal with Anderson?
DALPA HAD agreement from NWALPA on this before but flatly rejected it.

The only thing that has changed between the time you rejected NWALPA's offer of arbitration and today, where DALPA now says arbitration is fine, is your deal.

Why the Flip-Flop?

Superpilot92

I think we can all agree that there is and has been some SERIOUS miscommunication by both sides. Hopefully now that we are ALL seeing this we can finally move forward working together and stop the fighting between each other.

320FOB

Monday April 21, 4:56 pm ET
By Harry R. Weber, AP Business Writer
Delta pilots union open to arbitration with Northwest pilots to get seniority deal

ATLANTA (AP) -- The head of Delta's pilots union suggested Monday that he is open to arbitration with Northwest pilots over how to merge their seniority lists. The two sides failed to reach a pact before their airlines agreed to combine last week.
In a letter to fellow pilots Monday, Lee Moak, the chairman of the executive committee at Delta's pilots union, said union leaders are committed to the idea that seniority integration should be accomplished after negotiation of a single joint contract and, if necessary, "expedited arbitration to be completed before closing of a corporate transaction."
The two carriers tried and failed to get a pilot seniority integration deal in advance of their combination announcement.
Before Delta's April 14 announcement that it was acquiring Northwest, Moak had said he opposed binding arbitration.

The Northwest pilots union has said repeatedly that it supports arbitration, though that was before Delta's pilots cut a deal with management days before the merger announcement to give them a voting board seat, future pay raises and an equity stake in the combined airline. Delta's pilots union agreed to make changes to the pilot contract that give management more flexibility. Rank-and-file Delta pilots must ratify the agreement.
That agreement does not cover Northwest pilots.
Moak and a spokesman for Northwest's pilots union could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Arbitration can be a long, contentious process.
The conventional wisdom has been that arbitration might not be desirable for Delta's pilots union because of concern that younger Delta pilots might lose the seniority they obtained after the mass exodus of older pilots ahead of Delta's bankruptcy filing in 2005. The airline emerged from Chapter 11 protection last April.
It's not clear why Delta's pilots union supports arbitration now when it didn't before.
Moak also said in his letter that there have been a "number of ugly rumors, innuendo and factually inaccurate stories" that mischaracterize the Delta pilot leaders' motives in crafting the contract revision agreement with management.
Moak did not specify in his letter what reports he was talking about.
"While we all recognize that there are two sides to every story, an extended tit for tat exchange is counterproductive and only serves to pit pilots against one another, a tactic that has traditionally been reserved for airline management," Moak wrote. "That type of response will get us no closer to our goal of a single unified pilot group in the merged airline."
Moak did say that Delta's pilots union hopes to reach a joint agreement with Northwest's pilots to take effect on the closing of the combination transaction that provides "immediate parity in rates of pay." He said the union also wants a "fair and equitable integrated seniority list to take effect on the effective date of the new joint agreement." Delta Air Lines Inc.'s stock-swap deal to acquire Northwest Airlines Corp., if approved by regulators and shareholders, would create the world's biggest carrier. Investors have sent shares of both airlines down sharply since the deal was announced.

Scoop

320 - Its simple. The DAL MEC had the power to avoid a pre-merger arbitration and we did. The company was going to merge without us. Once they merge the DAL MEC has no choice but to arbitrate which should please the NW guys since that is what you wanted. Watch out what you wish for - you may just get it. Of course we could still take a page from the NW MEC, and even though arbitration is unavoidable, act like we can avoid it and beat our chests and say how mean and unfair the world is or we can plan for it and hope to get it beyond us as soon as possible.
By the way if you know how the DAL MEC can avoid arbitration - please share it with us since you seem to think that we have a choice.
Scoop