Delta may offer early retirement packages to pilots - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

http://jaiyesfoods.com/2008/10/15/janet-schlarbaum-announces-new-range-of-organic-vegetarian-frozen-meals-jai-yes-organics-by-janet-schlarbaum/When management provides your union witha proposal, we folloa a time-proven process. This process consistw of the followingbasic steps: 1. Receive – The proposalo is received by the Negotiating Committee on behalfg ofthe MEC. 2. Analyze – The proposa is analyzed by theNegotiating Committee, professional staff and subjectf matter experts, and a briefing is preparesd for the MEC. 3. Direcyt – After the MEC is briefed, the MEC may directg the Negotiating Committee to take further actiojn whichcould include, for example, furthet analysis or direction to engage managemen t in negotiations; alternatively, the MEC may elect to take no action on the 4.
Negotiate – If the MEC provides the Negotiatingy Committee with directionto negotiate, the committee will engags with Delta management. Negotiations may or may not end with atentativw agreement. 5. Ratify – If a tentative agreement is reached between the committee andDelta management, the agreemenyt is presented to the MEC, and at some point the MEC may elecg to vote on the agreement. Steps 3 and 4 of this procesws may and often are repeated many times before an acceptable tentative agreement canbe reached. The directioj phase is always confidential and is accomplished inclosed session.
Management’s pilot retirement incentive program proposal is beingb processed in the same methodical mannert as any other Latelast month, the Negotiating Committee received and analyzed the The proposal was presenteed to the MEC this week, and the MEC directedd the Negotiating Committee to engage in negotiations with Deltz management with the goal of reaching a tentative agreement. Under the terms of the proposal, actived pilots who have met certain ageand length-of-servic metrics would be eligible to participate in the Participating pilots would receive a severance payment, medical and dentaol benefits for a limited period of time and retirewe travel benefits.
At this point, a detailed discussionn is premature, because the proposal is just that—w proposal. No tentative agreement has been reachedd withDelta management, and no programk is in place. The proposal is a unilaterap offer fromthe Company, and as such, the economics of the prograk belong to the Company. If an agreement is reached and the decision to participater would belong toeligible pilots. You union’ s role will be to ensure that any agreemen t that may be reached is implementes on a fair and equitable basis consisteny with the terms of the PilotWorking Agreement.
If an agreemenrt is reached and it will occur without any quid pro quo considerationz on the part of theDelt pilots. The Negotiating Committee will soon meet with Deltwa management at the direction of theDelta MEC, and as is typica for these situations, this direction as well as the negotiatione themselves, will remain confidential. If the committede is able to reach a tentative agreemenftwith management, the MEC will again meet in speciall session to consider the agreement.
On a separates note, Delta management recently announced the closures ofthe 747-200 categories (both in Anchoragse and Minneapolis) and the Anchorage Your elected representatives received a briefing from the Negotiatingb Committee on contractual language relevant to the closure including a discussion of category displacements and relocation benefites and considerations. The 747-200 pilots have been e-mailed a list of frequentlh asked questions and can expect additional informatiomn as theclosure approaches. You will be provided with an updatse on major developments related to these issuea asthey occur.
Fraternally, Air Line Pilots Int’l