This is just a couple of things that three experienced arbitrators had to say about the DAL/NWA attrition. There is more you all can go look it up. They addressed the attrition issue a lot. Some of the more interesting footnotes. They used ALPA merger policy just like us except their MC were reasonable. This was not talked about here much as the east has chosen to ignore this relative integration. If you wanted to protect attrition you should have worked on that instead of DOH as you were told by the arbitrator to drop.
At the same time, the Board rejects the NWA proposal to adopt, as a relevant
community, all such older Northwest Pilots. To do so would be to overweight the top
end of the Seniority List so substantially, and for so long, as to devitalize any hopes of
achieving fairness and equity. Moreover, as will be noted, one may not fairly ignore
other reasonable projections in evidence that must also be considered in assessing
overall career expectations.
Equity demands that the Northwest pilots’ expectations not be fully foiled by the
merger. Fairness, however, requires some tempering of the potential impact power of
the adjustment mechanism. It would be myopic for this Board to focus solely on the
stand-alone attrition expectations of the NWA pilot group. We accept they may
constitute a legitimate career expectation, but one must also consider other elements
reasonably regarded as potentially dampening those expectations.20
20 It is also appropriate to consider gains that flow from the merger. While it is true that both pilot forces
are compensated relatively well, by comparison with the average U.S. airline, it is also the case that, on a
stand-alone basis, Northwest Pilots were paid less than their counterparts at Delta. Due to the success of
the parties in bargaining a new Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (“JCBAâ€) effective October 30,
2008, (October 30, 2008, is the date of corporate closing of the merger.) Northwest Pilots enjoyed
immediate benefits averaging 9.51% across the group. Delta characterizes this as equivalent to the value
of one to two-and-one-half upgrades, depending on the equipment type, for each pre-merger pilot. (See
DX-21 at 11-13; DX-37 at 2; Tr., 2549-55.)
8 As in all such exercises, the focus here is necessarily on groups, not on any individual pilot. Inevitably,
and unavoidably, there will be perceived disparities and mismatches on individual levels, on both sides,
under the merged list.
11 Thus, as of July 1, 2008, a straight Date-of-Hire list allocates, among the top 1,500 positions, 246 to
Delta Pilots and the remaining 1,254 to Northwest. The bottom 500 Pilots include approximately 320
Delta Pilots and 150 Northwest Pilots. (NWX I-31 (A)). Five years later, there are 1,195 Northwest Pilots
to Delta’s 305 among the top 1,500 positions. (NWX I-31(B)). Even 10 years later, in 2018, while Delta
has gained the advantage among the first 1,500 positions (816 to 684), the first 750 jobs are populated,
2:1, by Northwest Pilots. The Delta pilots fare relatively well in 2023 – 15 years after the merger – but the
community of pilots affected by the methodology has, by then, shrunk to about 5,000.
(NWX I-33 (A).
