I can see where the commuter pilots would have a lot more enthusiasm for this deal than the Real Deltoids...
From aviationnow.com :
ASA, Comair, Delta Pilots
Ponder Union Merger
by Denise Marois
Pilots at Comair and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, both represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, want their unions to merge with Delta’s ALPA unit to keep management from whipsawing -- when management plays one union group against another. Unions also want to ensure that Delta’s pilot contract does not contain restrictions on regional jet operations that would hurt pilots at Comair and ASA.
About 250 pilots turned up at a rally in Cincinnati yesterday in support of the seniority list merger. Comair ALPA Master Executive Council Chairman J.C. Lawson says a merger of the seniority lists would protect pilot careers at all three airlines. “Any artificial restrictions placed upon an airline by another is not in the spirit of what ALPA is all about,” told the rally. Merging seniority lists would do away with artificial limits on flying for Comair or ASA pilots, Lawson says.
On Tuesday Comair and ASA pilots filed a joint resolution with ALPA International asking for implementation of the union’s merger and fragmentation policy among the three carriers. The resolution notes that pilots at ASA and Comair could lose more than $200 million in pay and benefits over the next five years if proposed changes in the Delta pilot scope clause restricting RJ operations growth go through.
The petition also notes that ALPA is faced with an “irreconcilable conflict of interest” in bargaining for scope protections for Delta pilots and for ASA and Comair pilots. It is “inappropriate for ALPA to support any scope language that would harm ASA and compare pilots to the benefit of the mainline Delta pilots,” the petition adds. ALPA spokesman John Mazor had not yet seen the petition as of yesterday.
The push to merge comes as Delta’s ALPA negotiates a contract that likely will include tighter limits on RJ expansion. Lawson said that with separate contracts, Delta is free to work one pilot group against another. “With one corporate owner and three contracts, it does not give ALPA the clout to deal with one pilot group and one contract,” Lawson notes. All those conflicts "disappear if we are merged as one pilot group,” he adds