Dough - a question. What would the MEC have to do with hiring? Why wouldn't DAL management/union approach the people that do the hiring at Comair? Why have to go thru the Comair union to begin with?
I said I wasn't going to get into this.....
What the Delta MEC asked for was the support of the COMAIR MEC to simply request COMAIR management allow DAL furloughees to be hired without seniority resignment. COMAIR management might have said no, but at least the COMAIR pilots would have showed themselves to be sensitive to the DAL furloughee, and that was really what our MEC was requesting.
BTW, this is exactly what the ASA MEC did and ASA management agreed to let DAL furloughees apply without resigning seniority.
But, not only did the COMAIR MEC try to use the furloughees as a barganing chip, they also wrote a letter to COMAIR management (which I read but unfortunately did not get a copy of) that said, in essence, that forcing COMAIR Captains to fly with a DAL furloughee copilot would cause "safety of flight" and unrepairable CRM issues, so therefore the MEC could not support hiring of DAL furloughees.
As far as the general pilot population goes, I didn't see one resolution proposed, or any protest raised to this policy. The only turnaround occurred after DAL had been recalling pilots for about a year, the COMAIR MEC reversed their stance and supported the hiring of DAL furloughees, as if they needed the support at that point.
During the COMAIR strike, I and many others volunteered our time off to monitor local airport operations to ensure that Delta was not adding flights or increasing guage to try and subvert the strike. We voted for and paid the strike assessments to benefit COMAIR pilots out on strike. We were soon repaid in a fashion that totally surprised everyone.
Not long after the strike was over, the leadership of the COMAIR MEC (RJDC) filed suit against ALPA in a power grab attempt to dissolve mainline scope and try to force seniority integration. That lawsuit is still in litigation. Again, COMAIR pilots have not come out critizing their leaderships' actions.
I've had more than one COMAIR pilot in this timeframe sit on my aircraft's jumpseat, talking about their hire date at COMAIR being previous to mine at DAL, and they would be displacing me from my seat after the RJDC won the lawsuit and the seniority lists combined.
So pardon me if I don't have lots-o-love for the COMAIR pilot group. If you really want the truth, I hope DAL liquidates COMAIR and puts the entire pilot group out of work. I am not alone at DAL in any of these sentiments, particularly amongst past furloughees and first officers. Quite a number of Captains share these feelings too, even though their seniority insulated them from most of the COMAIR pilots' threats.