ON-AGAIN… OFF-AGAIN…
ARE WE TO BEGIN AGAIN?

MERGER TALKS REVIVED
DID MONEY GREASE THE WHEELS?


On Monday April 7th, Reuters News service reported that Delta Air Lines Inc “has agreed to revive merger talks with Northwest Airlines despite the pilots of the two companies not having reached agreement on the transfer of seniority in a merger..”

For many of us, the timing of the renewed push to rekindle the merger talks seems a tad bit suspicious. What do we mean by that? Let’s all review the time-line of last weeks events to better understand the change of heart in the process.

Out of the blue, on Thursday the 3rd of April the top 7 officers of Delta Air Lines received in total, 397,000 shares of Delta stock. As you all might remember, after we exited bankruptcy, Delta set aside 1.4% of all Delta stock to be presented to top Delta management for future “performance awards.”

Apparently these ‘Magnificent 7’ did something spectacular on Thursday the 3rd to be awarded this money, oh like, agreeing to push through a merger, even possibly without the pilots’ approval or consent. This all appears a whole lot like a quid pro quo to those of us affected by it all.

The Board met a day later on the 4th of April and apparently set in motion the events of this week. Why are we suspicious? Well, why the performance awards in the middle of a recession when we aren’t making any money and the reportable numbers to the FAA are not that spectacular when factoring in our Regional partners?

What has this management team accomplished lately to be rewarded this handsomely other than deciding not to follow through with the pay reimbursement for us non-contract employees? NOTHING!

They are being given money to get the deal done. They might also be receiving this stock precisely because they decided not to follow through on their many promises of eventual industry standard pay for the non-contractual employees. The Board is signaling to the Corporate Officers that the way to fill their own pockets is to finish the job of emptying our pockets.

It’s apparent that this merger is going to happen; those of you who feel safe and secure in your hubs should seriously consider the many ‘promises and commitments’ that have already been broken by this new management team. Don’t be lulled into a sense of security just because you work in ATL. You are the lowest seniority employees in the system, on average.

When this merger happens we will have nobody to look after our interests. The DBC has all but disappeared as an entity and didn’t provide real or meaningful representation. Where’s our industry standard pay and what about the time-clocks? Anderson and Bastion have been rewarded last week with over 230,000 shares of stock for their performance; almost on top of the time we were told they would prefer us to take a pittance and leave through early outs.

We get shown the door and they receive bonuses; how typical of corporate greed in today’s business climate. The only way forward for us in these uncertain times is to follow the lead of the pilots and soon to be flight attendants by unionizing through the IAM. It really is our only option. It is also our best option.