21 Apr Letter from DAL MEC Chairman
 

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

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 pre-announcement 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.

Fraternally,

Lee Moak, Chairman
Delta MEC

Captain Moak is very eloquent in his response to the one sided LOA 19 agreement, but let me give you an NWA pilot perspective. DAL has never treated any airline merger partner fairly. I give you PAL and Western as examples.

Now what he says sounds good, but let me put it into perspective from the "other" side. DAL gets their raise, they ask for a ridiculous seniority list from NWA. NWA says you're Sc***ing us. DAL says, darrn, we tried, oh well.

Willing to bet that's what will happen.

It's far worse than that. After they say "darn, we tried" the no furlough clause for Delta pilots only kicks in after the closing of the merger. Any furloughs during the multi-year arbitration process is all on the NWA side. When arbitrator makes the decision, he says the new SLI only applies to pilots who were on the property at the time of the decision. This effectively staples all furloughed NWA pilots to the back of the new list. Will DALPA employ this strategy, who knows. But the LOA allows for it to happen at the sole discretion of DAL management.

Carl

I dont think that will happen. Also by the time the merger goes through a number of new aircraft will be on property and they need pilots.

From your lips......

Carl

Huh?:confused:

Can you tell us how Delta treated those merger partners unfairly. I can tell you as a former WAL pilot I don't feel that way. Delta bought WAL and a portion of Pan Am. The merged the pilots based on ratio's by equipment. The WAL list was negotiated and agreed to by both MEC's. The method for merging the PAL pilots was also agreed to by the MEC's. Pilots at PAL had a choice to come over to Delta or stay with PAL. Pay more doubled for both pilot groups within 2 years. Within 4 years most WAL pilots were making triple with the upward movement. Most WAL pilots retired as senior widebody international captains. A position we would never have held at WAL. Tell us how that compares to say how AMR has treated their 3 merger partners since the DAL/WAL merger. In fact please compare it to any mergers since then. Give us some specific facts in how PAL and WAL were miss treated.

Gotta agree with sailingfish. Every ex WAL guy I've flown with would state something along the lines of, "Yeah, I got hosed. I had to fly a bigger plane to better places, for more money." Usually said with a big grin and laugh, right before thay bought the next round.

When I was little I rode on Western DC-10's.
I'm sure Western probably got a pay raise after being bought by Delta.
Also granted DL flew more Int;l than Western.
7576

This is the epitome of the airline pilot "the sky is falling" mentality.:eek: