sailingfun

[quote=Pitts S2B;369565]I hope you are all right. But, if you are looking for a conspiracy. It certainly was a good move for DALPA to get the LOA. Now, they are FOR arbitration because if they don't like the outcome, they can fight it all the way until 2012. All the while operating under the LOA with the higher rates of pay, and effectively leaving NWA on a B scale.

Just some food for thought....

Just to make one point clear. DALPA Is not for Arbitration. They have released several statements making that clear. For unknown reasons NWA put out that DALPA was now for arbitration. This is a false statement. I understand they have been officially asked to retract that statement. Don't know if they have or will. DALPA wanted to get a merged list via negotiation. The head of the NWA merger committee showed up on day one stating he believed it should go to arbitration and proudly pointing out his personal record of being involved in 26 negotiations involving seniority at NWA and failing to reach a agreement on a single one with all going to arbitration. He was at some point in the process removed by the NWA MEC but the damage was done. The new joint contract took effect only if we reached a negotiated seniority list. Arbitration meant that contract which captured tremendous value for all pilots would have been out the window. That is the reason DALPA did not want to go that route.

With the failure to negotiate a SLI the Joint contract was gone. Even so DALPA still does not want to go to arbitration. Arbitration is a exhausting process that leaves nothing but ill will. The federal government will not even allow us into arbitration until we have completed mediation. If we arbitrate the list the process can and most likely will take years. Just getting a arbitrator assigned can take one year in some cases. Here is the most recent DALPA statement on the process.

Check Essential

[quote=sailingfun;369815The federal government will not even allow us into arbitration until we have completed mediation. If we arbitrate the list the process can and most likely will take years. Just getting a arbitrator assigned can take one year in some cases.[/quote]


Just a minor clarification-

You're confusing this joint contract/SLI process with Section 6 of the Railway Labor Act.

The federal govt has nothing to do with our current situation. We don't need their permission for anything. Its only under the RLA that mediation is a required step, negotiations can be "parked", arbitrators are "assigned", 30 day cooling off, etc. etc..
The Delta and Northwest pilots are involved in a private negotiation. Whether we arbitrate is up to us and/or ALPA Merger Policy. The National Mediation Board doesn't play a role until somebody's contract is amendable or if there's a representation dispute.

There is a seperate organization called the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. http://www.fmcs.gov/internet/
Unions often ask these guys to help resolve disputes. Its voluntary and does not bring the Railway Labor Act into the picture. Might not be a bad idea in this case.

Scoop

MJB,
Great post. My situation is almost identical with similar dates/furlough/ and even a stint of MIL LV but from the DAL side. I agree that it is a shame a deal could not be worked out. I think a large majority of line pilots want a fair deal and do want any gain at the other sides expense, but we all have a different version of fair.

Could a deal be fair that resulted in your furlough from the combined company? You might say no, but I would say - yes, if you would have been furloughed at a stand alone NW.

Could a deal be fair that would result in a DAL guy getting furloughed at the combined company when he would not have been furloughed at a stand alone DAL?

He would probably say no but NW guys with an earlier DOH but relatively junior might think it was fair.

Fairness is a tough nut to crack under these circumstances. Things are not looking good in this industry right now - we all may be in more trouble then we realize but either way I hope nobody gets furloughed from either airline. I am still hopeful that a deal gets done that is fair to all.

Scoop

Carl Spackler

Scoop,

Interesting how you setup your scenarios. In my view here's what you should have said in the second paragraph: "Could a deal be fair that would result in a DAL guy getting furloughed at the combined company? You might say no, but I would say - yes, if you would have been furloughed at a stand alone DAL." You see, THAT would be a fair comparison. Unless you really don't think furloughs were a possibility at a stand alone DAL. Is that what you believe? Even though DAL made a big splash of cutting thousands of jobs and reducing capacity - still no furloughs? DAL hiring to stop in May - still no furlough concern?

Carl

finis72

Carl, I agree with you on that one, I thought the same thing as I was reading it.

Ferd149

Carl,

Agree! The 9s may have gotten parked, but they will get parked faster by the combined airline. Our junior guys shouldn't take that load alone.

Also, the other piece of the 9 puzzle is we have to get the Compass guys on our list NOW. That is really where the 9 flying is going, no matter who is running the train.

Ferd

Superpilot92

Exactly, the -9's were going to be retired eventually but they are being reduced quicker under the merged scenario. How is that only the NWA pilots problem?

Why not bring the compass guys over and put them on the bottom now? That is better for them instead of them waiting 30 months to flow over they can come over now and that would be good for everyone. The EJETs shouldn't have been on a different ticket in the first place.

FrankCobretti

April 21, 2008

Dear Fellow Pilot,

Today marks the one week point since the announcement of the proposed corporate merger between Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines. Over the course of this past week, your MEC has distributed detailed information describing our role in the proposed merger. This week, a special edition Widget will be published and a series of road shows will begin. Your elected representatives will be present in the pilot lounges. We will continue to provide you with the information you will need to make an informed decision when the LOA 19 membership ratification window opens.

In addition to the factual information from your MEC, a number of ugly rumors, innuendo and factually inaccurate stories have surfaced through various other venues, official and otherwise, which mischaracterize the agreement and cast unwarranted suspicion on the motives of the Delta MEC in the crafting and unanimous approval of LOA 19. Many of you have called or written to suggest that we aggressively counter each and every misrepresentation that is taking place. 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. That type of response will get us no closer to our goal of a single unified pilot group in the merged airline.

That said, I think it is appropriate to provide a general response to the allegations and to clarify your MEC’s position on achieving a merged pilot group.

Throughout the months leading up to the merger announcement, the goal of the Delta MEC was always to reach a consensual comprehensive agreement with the Northwest MEC and Delta Air Lines management so that at the close of the merger, we would operate as a single pilot group under a joint pilot contract with a fair, negotiated seniority list.

Let me be perfectly clear: Nothing has changed in that regard. In fact, the Delta MEC’s unanimously adopted resolution to ratify LOA 19 contained this very important language:

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Delta MEC welcomes the Northwest pilots as partners in the building of the new merged airline and looks forward to working with the Northwest MEC to bring about the rapid completion of a new joint agreement to take effect on the closing of the corporate transaction providing immediate parity in rates of pay and further providing for a rapid completion of a fair and equitable integrated seniority list to take effect on the effective date of the new joint agreement (emphasis added).

From the earliest stages of a possible merger involving Delta, your MEC sought to provide the pilots of both airlines with an alternative to the traditional merger process. None of our actions were taken without a reason; none of the decisions were made in a vacuum. In developing an alternative, we determined that maximum value for the pilot groups could best be extracted by reaching a comprehensive overall agreement between the two pilot groups and the surviving management team in advance of the merger announcement. Despite several exhaustive efforts, however, we were unable to reach an agreement on an integrated seniority list which was integral to an overall agreement.

As the probability of a merger increased and the associated timeline grew correspondingly shorter, the Delta MEC was faced with a choice. We could do nothing and follow the well worn traditional merger path, a path that has rarely led to a successful outcome for labor, or we could continue to assert our relevance at the front-end of the merger process and exercise the protections that exist in our scope language to obtain the maximum possible leverage, a move which eventually would serve the best interests of both pilot groups. In short, while we would like to have achieved an overall preannouncement agreement including the Northwest pilots, that option was no longer available within the timeframe under which we were working. We had simply run out of time. Your Negotiating Committee negotiated and your MEC ratified LOA 19 to accomplish the first step of what is now a two-step process designed to achieve essentially the same goal—a single pilot group operating under a joint contract with a negotiated single seniority list.

Had our situations been reversed, I am confident that your MEC would have kept the endgame in mind and encouraged the Northwest pilots’ leadership to take a similar approach.

The Delta pilots have a long and proud history of treating each other fairly. We were the only group to fund COBRA benefits for our furloughed pilots. We initiated our first picketing effort in 1998 to fight for “years of service” credit for our furloughed pilots, a fight we won. We established a Furlough/Emergency Relief Fund to provide help to those affected by fires, hurricanes, tornados or any number of other catastrophes. When wildfires hit southern California last fall and threatened to drain the ALPA National Emergency Relief Fund, the Delta pilots stepped up with a $25,000 donation to aid our fellow pilots from other carriers.

We have always acted sincerely with the best interests of our fellow pilots in mind, and make no mistake, once the corporate transaction closes, the Delta and Northwest pilots will all be Delta pilots. The ethics of integrity, fairness and professionalism must not be compromised as we transition to a group over 12,000 strong.

Any revisionist views about the motives behind LOA 19 are simply fiction.

We have been in contact with both Delta management and the Northwest MEC leadership, and we are attempting to schedule preparations between the two Negotiating Committees and actual negotiations with the company as soon as practical. We will continue to pursue a single joint contract with full parity for the Northwest pilots to take effect at the close of the corporate transaction. We are also committed to the premise that seniority integration should be accomplished after negotiation of the single joint contract by expedited negotiations and, if necessary, expedited arbitration to be completed before closing of a corporate transaction. Unlike our attempt to reach a cooperative seniority list integration before the merger announcement, arbitration can have a role post announcement, either through ALPA merger policy or earlier, through mutual agreement.

Finally, this week, I will join other members of the MEC administration including members of the Negotiating Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, and professional staff as we travel to each pilot domicile to present information on LOA 19 and provide you with an opportunity to ask questions of those directly involved in the efforts of the past several months. If you are not flying, I encourage you to take time from your busy schedules to attend one of these road shows.
====
Personally, I'm so new that I'll wind up at the bottom no matter what the final list looks like. That's ok - if furloughs come, there's always work in Baghdad.

slowplay

Help me out if I'm wrong here, but I thought that your management, prior to any merger announcement, stated that domestic capacity was going to be pulled down an additional 5% this fall, including 10 additional DC9's being parked. There were additional A319/320 and 757 included to reach 15-20 jets, with no growth aircraft backfilling.

Note also the proffering of leaves for NWA domestic pilots during the summer schedule. Delta is at the contractual max for pilots right now.

Delta announced parking 15-20 jets (88, 757, 767 domestic) while taking delivery of 22 international jets during the same time period.

In those numbers lies the difference, and the location of the problem. We aren't merged airlines yet.

These are questions with no political overtones...has your MEC stated that as a goal/gameplan? How many Compass pilots have flow-thru rights? How does that affect the Mesaba/Pinnacle guys?

Superpilot92

the posturing of fleets right now is for the merger and the future DAL. IMHO

As far as compass, it has been rumored and talked about from some of the union guys i have spoken with. Will it happen, who knows? All Compass pilots have flow through rights after 30 months and flowbacks can occupy 90% of the Compass list in the event of furloughs. Pinnacle isnt effected at all as its not a wholly owned and doesnt have a flow through. Mesaba does have flow through rights but that agreement is much more conservative in how it works. Its 1 for 1 based on flow up/flow back.