Thu, May 25, 2006
Hearing Scheduled May 31... As Current Pilots Finish Voting On
Deal
A tentative pay
agreement reached between Delta Air Lines and its pilots last month
may be in danger... not from the pilots union, but rather from
former pilots for the carrier.
The Delta Pilots' Pension Preservation Organization -- a group
representing the carrier's 5,800 retired pilots -- has asked a
bankruptcy court judge to reject the tentative contract, saying
that if approved it would drastically reduce pension benefits for
the bankrupt carrier's former pilots.
The retired pilots say Delta negotiated an improper deal,
because the carrier is taking more than what is necessary for Delta
to successfully reorganize. They also claim Delta failed to present
a deal "so as to treat fairly and equitably all creditors and
affected parties."
A hearing on the objection is scheduled for May 31... the same
day Delta's current pilots are scheduled to complete voting on the
agreement. Regardless of the outcome of the pilots' voting, the
court's ruling would be the final word.
Delta is betting on the agreement going forward, in its quest to
save an average of $280 million annually. "It is important to our
future and that of everyone connected with Delta Air Lines,"
airline spokesman Bruce Hicks told the Associated Press.
Should the new contract
-- which was approved by leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association
on April 21, one week after the airline and the union reached the
tentative agreement -- be rejected by either the court or Delta's
current pilots, it could once again revive the threat of a pilots
strike.
In such a scenario, Delta would almost certainly ask federal
mediators to allow the carrier to toss out its current contract
with pilots -- a move that pilots say would be met by an immediate
strike.
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