Dear Fellow Pilot,

This morning, at 10:00 a.m. ET, the ratification window for the Contract 2012 Tentative Agreement closed. Contract 2012 has been ratified by the Delta pilots. Of 10,864 eligible Delta pilots, 10,170, or 94 percent cast their vote. Of those, 6,327, or 62 percent voted “In Favor” of the agreement.

The agreement will become effective on Sunday, July 1, 2012. Once implemented, the PWA will continue in full force and effect through December 31, 2015.

In the coming weeks and months, you will receive a variety of communications as various contractual items approach implementation. The first of these, Scheduling Alert 12-07 -- Scheduling and PBS - What is About to Change and When, will be sent to you later today and will provide you with a broad overview of scheduling/PBS-related items that will be implemented over the next 19 months with an emphasis on those items that will be implemented in July and August. In particular, all pilots will receive a 4% pay rate increase on July 1, and the Reserve Guarantee will increase to the Average Line Value less two hours (72 hour minimum; 80 hour maximum).

The ratification of the agreement represents the culmination of several months of effort on the part of your elected representatives, the entire extended committee structure, ALPA staff professionals, and the Negotiating Committee. Thanks to all of you who took the time to participate in the process by providing input to your elected reps, attending road shows, and ultimately, casting your vote.

Respectfully,
Chairman
Delta Master Executive Council

 

No excuses now. If the company was stalling until this came out now they can go forward and either make a deal or make it clear that they will not so we can go forward with RLA remedies.

 

Except they will now want to see the american proposal

 

And force the DAL scope on us. When do the strike results come out?

 

You mean put hard caps on different Rj sizes and even large turboprops? You already have 64 seaters (really 70 seaters with first class) flying through IAH and EWR, so your scope didn't really work. Those large Dash-8-400s also killed your 735 operation in EWR. And, if you limited it to ONLY 50 seaters, you know, the ones that really don't make money, how does that help you and your company? There are cities out there that can't be fed by a mainline sized plane. How about IAH to Grand Junction, CO? Just not gonna happen. Instead, cap certain sizes, throw a ratio that favors your mainline, and then get your raise. If not, you will still see larger RJs (SKW, Gojets, Mesa CR7s and Shuttle America E170s) flying through all of your hubs, and still have poor workrules and lower pay. Your choice. You won't get rid of the larger RJs, they will stick around. So cap them and move on.

 

Like it or not, with Delta being direct competition and American to a lesser extent, a UAL JCBA is likely to be very close to the DAL pilot contract.

With the intense competition in this industry, there isn't a surviving management group that would sign up to anything that would put them at a competitive disadvantage. You can't force them to do so, nor would you want to in your long-term best interest.

 

Yes Bill, We could just roll over and give in to outsourcing...OR...WE can try to fight it. Obviously DALPA wasn't up for the fight. Somebody needs to make a stand. May as well be us...my double-breasted friend.

 

Taking a position that is not supported anywhere else in the industry via peer group agreement or contract will not go far in convincing the NMB your position is "reasonable" unless you are prepared to "compensate" (read: give) elsewhere.

I'm not trying to bait anybody or be the bearer of bad tidings. But the cat is out of the bag and has been for some time. Time to move on as Mr. Bill says.

 

Just got a text that it (DAL TA) passed, so I took a break from slaughtering the last of my prized golden egg laying geese, came inside, washed my hands and headed here to see for myself.

This put's the United pilot's campaign into perspective. Like the advent of auto focus. UCH management should be able to tender an offer within an hour or so . . . but they won't. Anyhow, back to poisoning wells, plowing salt into the soil and other scorched earth tactics. At least that is until tonight, when I'll practice how to vote NO over and over again, for when they do reach a TA that's somewhere between DAL and AA.

 

You need to take a better look around.

DAL has always led the pack in giving up flying. There are other major airlines that we can compare ourselves to.

Not all airline pilots will sell out the future for a small raise.

We need to move away from the "old guy" thinking and start making some progress.

(Just to clarify, my position is that the 50 seaters are going away and those cities will lose air service. The new CRJ-900's will be taking over mainline city pairs. Huge concession by a short-sighted group only focused on money).

DAL pilots have shown how their "hard caps" are easily discarded and changed with every new TA.

This doesn't have to be a disaster for us. We need to get to the point of "self help".