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08-11-2008, 09:35 AM
#2
Underboob King
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Guppy Commander
Posts: 4,412
Tick Tock Tick Tock!! 
Voting deadline looms for Delta, NWA pilot pact - Aug. 11, 2008
Voting deadline looms for Delta, NWA pilot pact
Airlines need their 12,000 pilots to approve collective bargaining agreement in order for carriers to integrate.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Pilots at Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. were being encouraged by their union leaders to approve a joint collective bargaining agreement as Monday's deadline to vote on the pact loomed.
Ratification of the agreement is a key element of Atlanta-based Delta (DAL, Fortune 500)'s efforts to achieve a smooth integration of the two companies when it acquires Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp (NWA, Fortune 500). later this year.
The agreement covers roughly 12,000 pilots of the two airlines. The pilots still don't have a deal to integrate their seniority lists, but have agreed to submit to binding arbitration if they can't come to terms on their own within a certain timeframe. A three-member panel has already been chosen in case arbitration is needed.
Pilots value their seniority because it determines their schedule, the aircraft they fly and layoff protection.
Delta hopes to complete its stock-swap deal to acquire Northwest by the end of the year. The combination, announced April 14, is subject to shareholder and U.S. regulatory approval. European regulators cleared the deal last week.
World's largest carrier in traffic
The combination, being proposed at a time of persistently high fuel prices and airline industry financial woes, would create the world's largest carrier in terms of traffic.
The pilot agreement, together with a previous one reached between Delta pilots and management, calls for compounded raises for pilots over 18% over four years, a summary provided to Delta pilots says.
The joint contract agreement also calls for pre-merger Northwest pilots to receive a 2.38% equity stake in the new Delta. Current Delta pilots would receive a 3.5% equity stake. The summary sent by Delta union officials to Delta pilots says the two amounts are proportional given the size of the two pilot groups. There are about 5,000 Northwest pilots and about 7,000 Delta pilots.
Rank-and file Delta and Northwest pilots must approve the joint collective bargaining agreement for it to become final.
Delta pilot union urges approval
In a letter to fellow Delta pilots Friday, the head of Delta's pilots union, Lee Moak, said approving the joint contract "allows us the opportunity to secure our future in an increasingly difficult industrial and economic environment." Northwest pilot leaders also sent a message to fellow pilots Friday urging them to ratify the joint contract.
Moak said that while the price of crude oil has moderated from recent highs, it remains volatile and at historically high levels.
"There are those who would suggest that we would be better served by simply rejecting this agreement -- that all we have to do is simply 'go back and get more,"' Moak wrote. "Or they argue the agreement favors the Northwest pilots over the Delta pilots in one respect or another, but upon closer analysis, these views are many times based on a misunderstanding of the agreement, a misinterpretation of its terms, a failure to acknowledge today's economic realities or simply ... anger."
He added, "As I have written many times before, anger is not a strategy."
Voting deadline looms for Delta, NWA pilot pact - Aug. 11, 2008
Voting deadline looms for Delta, NWA pilot pact
Airlines need their 12,000 pilots to approve collective bargaining agreement in order for carriers to integrate.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Pilots at Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. were being encouraged by their union leaders to approve a joint collective bargaining agreement as Monday's deadline to vote on the pact loomed.
Ratification of the agreement is a key element of Atlanta-based Delta (DAL, Fortune 500)'s efforts to achieve a smooth integration of the two companies when it acquires Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp (NWA, Fortune 500). later this year.
The agreement covers roughly 12,000 pilots of the two airlines. The pilots still don't have a deal to integrate their seniority lists, but have agreed to submit to binding arbitration if they can't come to terms on their own within a certain timeframe. A three-member panel has already been chosen in case arbitration is needed.
Pilots value their seniority because it determines their schedule, the aircraft they fly and layoff protection.
Delta hopes to complete its stock-swap deal to acquire Northwest by the end of the year. The combination, announced April 14, is subject to shareholder and U.S. regulatory approval. European regulators cleared the deal last week.
World's largest carrier in traffic
The combination, being proposed at a time of persistently high fuel prices and airline industry financial woes, would create the world's largest carrier in terms of traffic.
The pilot agreement, together with a previous one reached between Delta pilots and management, calls for compounded raises for pilots over 18% over four years, a summary provided to Delta pilots says.
The joint contract agreement also calls for pre-merger Northwest pilots to receive a 2.38% equity stake in the new Delta. Current Delta pilots would receive a 3.5% equity stake. The summary sent by Delta union officials to Delta pilots says the two amounts are proportional given the size of the two pilot groups. There are about 5,000 Northwest pilots and about 7,000 Delta pilots.
Rank-and file Delta and Northwest pilots must approve the joint collective bargaining agreement for it to become final.
Delta pilot union urges approval
In a letter to fellow Delta pilots Friday, the head of Delta's pilots union, Lee Moak, said approving the joint contract "allows us the opportunity to secure our future in an increasingly difficult industrial and economic environment." Northwest pilot leaders also sent a message to fellow pilots Friday urging them to ratify the joint contract.
Moak said that while the price of crude oil has moderated from recent highs, it remains volatile and at historically high levels.
"There are those who would suggest that we would be better served by simply rejecting this agreement -- that all we have to do is simply 'go back and get more,"' Moak wrote. "Or they argue the agreement favors the Northwest pilots over the Delta pilots in one respect or another, but upon closer analysis, these views are many times based on a misunderstanding of the agreement, a misinterpretation of its terms, a failure to acknowledge today's economic realities or simply ... anger."
He added, "As I have written many times before, anger is not a strategy."
Last edited by Superpilot92; 08-11-2008 at 09:42 AM.
08-11-2008, 11:04 AM
#3
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Joined APC: Mar 2007
Position: 88B - Loud Pipes Save Lives
Posts: 1,597
"There are those who would suggest that we would be better served by simply rejecting this agreement -- that all we have to do is simply 'go back and get more,"' Moak wrote. "Or they argue the agreement favors the Northwest pilots over the Delta pilots in one respect or another, but upon closer analysis, these views are many times based on a misunderstanding of the agreement, a misinterpretation of its terms, a failure to acknowledge today's economic realities or simply ... anger."
He added, "As I have written many times before, anger is not a strategy."
Truer words were never spoken. We'll see how this turns out shortly.
He added, "As I have written many times before, anger is not a strategy."
Truer words were never spoken. We'll see how this turns out shortly.
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