Delta pilots outside the Delta shareholders’ meeting in NYC (credit: Capt. Brad Caplan, DAL MEC).

NEW YORK – Delta Air Lines pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), conducted informational picketing at the Delta Shareholders Meeting, in NYC, to raise the sense of urgency in concluding the ongoing negotiations. It is time for Delta management and the Board of Directors to recognize the rising market for pilots and bring these negotiations to a timely conclusion.

Five months have passed since the contract's amendable date; fifteen months since negotiations began and the Delta pilots are still awaiting a new agreement. ALPA and Delta jointly filed for mediation with the National Mediation Board on March 31, 2016. The union is committed to negotiations, and our goal remains a fair and reasonable contract this summer.

Delta Air Lines is highly profitable and remarkably successful. For the first quarter of 2016, Delta recorded a historic pre-tax income of $1.56 billion—nearly triple from the first quarter of 2015, the previous historic high for Delta. Delta’s recently released 8-K filing confirms it is time to reward the pilots for their commitment to the Company’s success. Delta has earned the "investment grade" designation; it is time that Delta recognized its pilots are "investment grade" and compensate them appropriately.

“All other stakeholders – management, the other employees, investors – have now been rewarded . . . except for the pilots. It is time for the Delta Board of Directors to acknowledge our investments in the corporation, address the rising market for pilots, ensure Delta will continue to be able to attract the best of the best and take the necessary steps to recognize the Delta pilots as equal business partners as we move forward together to write the next chapter in Delta’s story,” stated Captain John Malone, MEC chairman, in a recent Chairman’s Letter.

ALPA and Delta will continue negotiations under the guidance of the National Mediation Board, with the next mediation session scheduled later this month.

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SOURCE: Air Line Pilots Association

CONTACT: DAL ALPA, Kelly Regus, 404-763-4925 office or kelly.regus@alpa.org