Thanks for the links, as I stated in my previous post, during the Air France take-over of KLM there were fences built in to make the employees more comfortable with the deal. The most important one from the pilot perspective is that the two flight operations are separate. An agreement about production and the split gives both groups the same opportunities as before the merger. Of course in the future things might change, but we are almost four years in, and there is no discussion about flying each other’s aircraft, or flying with mixed crews.
It sounds like the merger between Delta and Northwest the management wants to get the most out of things from day one, disregarding the sensitivities of the employees involved (back to the Anglo/Saxon management model). Delta’s and NWA fleets couldn’t be more different and it would be easy to keeps things separate for a number of years. Splitting any growth or contraction based on the amount of work that each brings into the merged company. This could give both pilot groups time to ease into the deal. Of course management deserves as much distrust as they get, having proven themselves to only look out for number one, but we still have a lot of power as pilots. Without us the things with wings don’t move.
Would be very interested on any feedback from Northwest or Delta pilots as to what would be acceptable for a merger model?