Am I missing something here? The Airline Pilot’s Association (ALPA), the union representing the Delta pilots has agreed to a three-man panel to arbitrate their dispute with Delta. Now, ALPA says that the Delta pilots will strike if the panel rules in Delta’s favor and their contract is rejected.

How does one agree to arbitration but threaten to strike if they don’t win the arbitration? Where is the logic in that?

Lee Moak, the leader of ALPA at Delta has said that Delta can’t make a business case for the concessions they are seeking. If the three-man panel, two of whom were selected by ALPA rules in favor of Delta, doesn’t that in itself show that Delta has made their business case?

When we cut to the chase, Captain Moak’s entire argument for a strike is that Delta won’t negotiate. Think about that for a moment. The threat of a strike because Delta won’t negotiate? Nonsense!

If failure to negotiate was the problem, then we can assume that had Delta asked for a savings of $650 million and negotiated down to $325 million, Captain Moak and ALPA would have been happy.

On the other hand, if Delta had asked for a total of $1 million from ALPA and refused to negotiate, I suspect that there would have been no disagreement.

No, it’s is not a failure to negotiate that is the problem, it’s Delta’s failure to cede to ALPA’s position on the amount of cost reductions Delta should expect from the pilot group that is the problem.

On more than one occasion Delta has made it absolutely clear that they would negotiate anything except the amount of savings they needed from the pilots. That means the savings could come from salary, vacation, or a plethora of work rule changes.

Individually, the pilots of Delta Air Lines, a group I belonged to for 27 years, are some of the brightest, if not the brightest, members of a labor union on planet earth.

Their competency in moving more than 100 million passengers annually to far corners of the world, in weather that would keep you and me inside, is second to none. Make no mistake, their skill, professionalism, and competency as airline pilots are a model for the American workplace.

Unfortunately, when the union gets involved, individualism goes down the drain and a mob mentality begins to rule. Captain Moak, while meaning well, has apparently fallen victim to the union mantra that management is incompetent, immoral, or just plain out to destroy the union.

But that’s what unions do. They twist the truth, they operate on innuendo, and they have a track record of ultimately destroying the very groups they represent.

When I was hired as a pilot by Delta in 1977, there were, as I recall, 10 “trunk” carriers. In alphabetical order, they were American, Braniff, Continental, Delta, Eastern, Northwest, Pan American, TWA, United and Western.

Of that group, only American and Western have avoided bankruptcy. Western avoided bankruptcy largely because of the efforts of Delta’s current CEO, Jerry Grinstein, who was CEO at Western in the mid eighties and engineered Western’s merger with Delta. That merger is still widely regarded as the only airline merger in the U. S. that has truly “worked.”

Braniff, Eastern, TWA, and Pan American no longer exist. All were in bankruptcy one or more times. Delta, Northwest, and United have filed for bankruptcy protection.

Perhaps it is coincidence that only American, the lone non-ALPA carrier in the group, is the only one of the 10 that still exists and has managed to avoid bankruptcy. Coincidence? Perhaps.

Additionally, U.S. Airways, a combination of Piedmont and Allegheny, whose pilots are represented by ALPA, has twice filed for bankruptcy protection.

To be sure, ALPA means well, but their track record is less than sterling. By their very nature, unions rely on emotion to rally their troops to action. Tomes could be written on the failure of modern unions to protect their constituents’ interests.

Unions are political organizations and as such they seek immediate gratification for their members. Rare is it that a union actually looks at the long-term impact of their actions. When a contract is signed, it’s “look what we did for you.” When labor’s extravagance leads to bankruptcy, we find management, the same management that fought to reduce labor costs, being vilified for their incompetence.

Although ALPA overwhelms their membership with written word, they make no effort to provide balanced objective information. Rather, they rely on innuendo and emotion to build their case.

Sorry, Captain Moak, the problem isn’t the leadership at Delta, it is high fuel prices and low cost competition.

Nothing above obviates the problems the Delta pilot faces. It is almost in vogue for non-pilots to relish the problems the pilots face but that’s unfair. Contrary to the Hollywood image, being a pilot isn’t glamour, exotic destinations and beautiful women.

It is often 14-hour duty days, flying six or seven legs in atrocious weather, and 10-hour layovers at the Holiday Inn in places like Jackson, Miss. There is no time for women, beautiful or otherwise. Often there isn’t even time for a good meal.

There is no question that the job holds none of the glamour it did in the ‘60s and ‘70s. It is darned hard work, continual training and evaluation, and semi-annual physicals that can bring a career to an end with an irregular heartbeat.

Granted these folks were paid large salaries in the days prior to 9/11 but those salaries are dwindling and Delta says they need even more sacrifice to survive, and then thrive.

It doesn’t matter whether your salary is $60,000 a year or $200,000 a year, if you base of lifestyle on your earnings (and why bother to earn unless you plan to enjoy the fruits of your labor?) and then see your total compensation reduced by nearly 50 percent, it is going to have a huge impact on your lifestyle and your morale.

Although pilots have traditionally been highly paid, we have always been working class. By that I mean we rely on our paychecks to survive. When our compensation is cut by 30 or 40 percent, it hurts because it means drastic changes in the way we live.

Nevertheless, a strike does nothing positive. Arguably some of Delta’s pilots are talented enough to work in other industries for higher wages. If that is the case, then those folks should leave Delta on good terms by resigning and heading for greener pastures.

There are also a significant number of pilots who won’t find a better job outside of Delta.

Certainly, if they strike, the chances of working for another air carrier are slim and none. But let’s think about that for a moment. If there were better airline jobs wouldn’t these folks already be leaving?

So, logic says that many Delta pilots have the best job they can expect to have. So logic says that to strike is senseless. Yes, logic says a strike is senseless, but strikes aren’t logical, they are emotional.

While more than 95 percent of the Delta pilots voted for a strike, the truth be known, the number who believe a strike is the answer is probably closer to 50 percent. Of the 50 percent who may truly believe in a strike, there are many spouses who are far less certain.

The belief is that the threat of a strike is all that is needed. Had the pilots been asked to vote on a strike knowing for certain that if they struck Delta would liquidate, the vote would have been far different.

I’ll say it right now and you can take it to the bank. In the event that a strike causes Delta to liquidate, more pilots and their families will be hurt than will benefit by moving on to “greener pastures.”

The collateral damage to the 40,000-plus non-pilot employees of Delta Air Lines and their families, and to all of the ancillary businesses and their employees who depend on Delta’s business is simply too great a price to pay.

Unfortunately a decision to strike is no longer in the hands of the individual pilot. Any pilot who crosses a picket line would find his life living hell if a strike were to occur and be settled. So, the vast majority of the Delta pilots will strike if their union leadership calls for a strike.

Jerry Grinstein has said that in the event of a strike, Delta won’t survive 24 hours. I hope he’s bluffing. However, in the past, I’ve heard Mr. Grinstein say he doesn’t know how to bluff. He simply tells it like it is and is consistent in his message.

In summary. ALPA has painted a picture of Delta’s management as being incompetent, greedy, and lacking in leadership. That picture has been built around only one fact, the fact that Delta’s management has refused to negotiate. Even that is substantially incorrect.

Now the pilot’s are being rallied to strike for an almost ethereal cause. If a strike causes Delta to liquidate, hundreds of thousands of people will suffer. They will lose not only a means of support but also health insurance. To be sure there will be folks who will be impacted for the rest of their lives because of lack of medical care.

There will be divorces, there will be bitterness, and lives will be ruined. A far more rational decision would be for the Delta pilots to leave individually for greener pastures when they find them. That transition allows Delta to keep flying, disgruntled pilots to remain employed until they find a better job, and the hundreds of thousands of other people who are dependent on Delta to continue to feed and clothe their families.

In his March 24 letter to the Delta pilots, one of Captain Moak’s central themes is that people matter. Yes, Lee, they do, and all of the hundreds of thousands of individuals that depend on Delta are indeed people.

One of the most divisive acts that ever occurred at Delta Air Lines was under CEO Leo Mullin’s leadership. Numerous top executives awarded themselves huge pensions and found ways to make those pensions bulletproof. That selfish act left Delta employees worldwide angered that any one group of Delta employees would put themselves above the welfare of the rest of Delta’s employees.

Ironically, the Delta pilots who have been so vocal about the disgust for Mullin and his ilk are now putting themselves in a position to wreak far more havoc on the Delta employee group than even Mullin’s and his cronies were capable of.

In the event of a strike I for one would return to Delta and fly for free until my 60th birthday ((longer if the law changes) to keep Delta afloat. I’d be called a scab and I’d probably lose a lot of friends among the Delta pilot group. But, I believe that the legacies of gentlemen like C.E. Woolman, Charlie Dolson, Dave Garrett and all of the wonderful folks at Delta both past and present deserve my support. These are all people, and people do matter.

Dave Davis
Fayetteville, Ga.