Wednesday, April 2, 2003

In the past, it has been my impression that your paper has occasionally portrayed Delta pilots in a negative way, accusing them of greed and of not caring for the company or the passengers. I now hope you have come to examine the front office team at the airline in the same fashion.

I, for one, am amazed at the actions of the Delta CEO and management team that have come to light in the most recent proxy statement. They brazenly awarded themselves huge compensation packages despite the woes of the company they are shepherding.

When the old formula for computing bonuses yielded a lump of coal, they rewrote the rules in order to take multimillion cash rewards for steering the company to record losses and new lows for their stock.

After doubling their compensation this past year, the CEO announced the generous pay reduction of 8 to 10 percent among the management team to show how they are helping the company bottom line during a trying time. While laying off employees, furloughing pilots and asking for voluntary leaves, the management team has forged an ironclad treasure box to secure their million-dollar pensions, all this while demanding concessions from their union employees, that is pilots.

While airline woes are not necessarily all of management's fault, their answer to the current situation is to take the money and run.

And I thought the country learned something from the likes of Enron. Once more the working man has to watch out for the wolf in the pinstripe suit.

Mark Deaton

Peachtree City