Inequitable Treatment of Delta Retired Pilots During & Since Re-organization

RE: Make a past wrong.....right!

Dear Mr. Anderson, Delta Senior Management and members of the Board of Directors,

My name is Robert Moser and I am a retired Delta pilot writing this petition letter on behalf of retired Delta pilots whose signatures are herein attached.

I began my career with Delta in 1972, shortly after the buyout of Northeast Airlines, as a temporary part-time reservations sales agent, and retired from Delta in 2005 as a Boeing 777 international captain.  I am sure that I speak for many pilots, to have been selected as a member of "The Delta Family" was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.   

I served with what I believe to be the finest group of pilots that I have ever known and they were instrumental for helping place Delta in a superior business position allowing the company to acquire and merge to where it is today. Yet this group has been wronged! 

Since retiring from Delta, I have flown the Boeing 777 for 3 international airlines and now that I am 65, I work as a flight instructor on the same for an Asian airline.

Mr. Anderson, as you know, news organizations around the world have reported that Delta's senior management and the Delta pilot negotiators, from the Air Line Pilots Association, have achieved a new working agreement considerably earlier than the amendable date. I commend both Delta's senior management and the Delta pilot's negotiating team for their diligent efforts to achieve this precedent setting agreement. 

Since that news a few weeks ago, I flew as a passenger on a Delta flight for the first time in several years.  As I was settling into my seat the "welcome aboard" video started.  To say that I was startled by your comments from behind Mr. Woolman's desk, would be an understatement. Mr. Woolman built a great airline but in addition a great "family" and he assured that family members were fairly treated. Invoking Mr. Woolman's name and symbols were distressing to me and my former pilot colleagues.

HONESTY, INTEGRITY, MUTUAL RESPECT?

I wish that I and my fellow Delta retired pilots can say that we have been treated fairly in retirement, but unfortunately we cannot.

On September 14, 2005, Delta entered the bankruptcy court in Manhattan, and one of their first requests to the bankruptcy judge was a "distress termination of the pilot pension plan." NO OTHER EMPLOYEE PENSIONS WERE TERMINATED.

On September 14, 2005 (the same day) Northwest Airlines, where you served as CEO from 2001 to 2004, entered bankruptcy court in Manhattan and declared that ALL retiree pensions would be continued because, "it was the right thing to do."

The very pilot group that helped place Delta in an extraordinary business position to capitalize on recent big moves, are the same ones that have disproportionately suffered the biggest hit during and after the re-organization.  No other employee group even comes close! The statements by Delta during the re-organization, that Delta retired pilots would receive 80-90% of their planned retirements has proven to be sheer fiction and vastly overstated for a great many of us.  The thing that I wish to make clear is that this harm to over 3500 suffering retired pilot families (of our most recent Delta pilot retirees) continues, because of the pension termination.  C.E. Woolman built a company that was a "family" and it would cause him pain to see members hurt unfairly. 

Tell us Mr. Anderson.........

How do we explain to our families that Delta Air Lines earned a net income of $1.05 billion dollars on revenues of $9.92 billion dollars during the 3rd quarter of this year, while the pilot retiree group continues to be denied over $600 million of their earned pensions?  And further, what should we tell our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors, why the retired Northwest pilots (now part of Delta Air Lines) RECEIVE A FULL MONTHLY PENSION CHECK from Delta, while many retired Delta pilots receive (pennies on the dollar) from the PBGC, or in the case of some Delta retired pilots, no payments at all?  That's right.......$0 in monthly pension payouts. 

Handing the terminated pension over to the government did not ameliorate the unfairness to our group, it increased it. The PBCG added additional restrictions and a draconian  formulation to retirement payouts that have further punished our retired pilots of which we are appealing.

How can there be an approval of a massive contractual agreement with the active Delta pilot group that will add nearly $300 million per year in additional payroll costs while totally ignoring the Delta retired pilot's lost EARNED pensions?

What would Mr. Woolman or Mr. Garrett say about how the Delta pilot retirees have been unfairly and unequally treated during this re-organization process?  No doubt they would both be unequivocally clear and against the corporate action of pension termination.  In a nutshell, they just didn't do business that way.  How do we know? Mr. Garrett came out of retirement to sign an important letter in 2003 (2 years before bankruptcy) written to a CEO predecessor who was diverting millions of dollars to insulate top execs pensions. 

The letter said, "The use of Delta's funds for this purpose....left us in disbelief......  The payments you have made ......will shelter the officer if the company fails.   It would appear that bankruptcy is no longer considered a last resort, but will now become just another strategic plan alternative to eliminate costs (including pensions) and force pay concession."  How prophetic!

Mr. Anderson, here is what you said at Mr. Garrett's memorial: 

"The thing we work the hardest to protect and preserve is that spirit and culture of values that Mr. Garrett fostered, and that is why we are here today."

And this is what Ed Bastain said at the same memorial for Mr. Garrett:

"Mr. Garrett thought of Delta as a family, and he cultivated a family atmosphere.  The values, the respect, the dignity, no matter what we are faced with, that we would do what we had to do to take care of each other."

If we had Mr. Woolman's thoughts on this issue, they would have been straight forward and strongly in favor of "family."

Mr. Anderson, you have an opportunity to fix a broken promise.  We all know pensions are not a gift to the retired employees.  Our pensions included deferred compensation that was earned through many years of hard work, superior customer service, and dedication to the corporation and its success by loyal employees.

Unlike Eastern, Braniff, Varig, Sabena or many other airlines, Delta Air Lines, Inc. did not die.  Delta survived and recovered because of the hard work and dedication of their active and retired employees.  

We, the Delta retired pilots, respectfully request that you show us the honesty, integrity, and mutual respect that you talked about on the welcome video.  We know that you and the rest of senior management will be fairly compensated for the profits that have been made during the past fiscal year.  The pensions that we, the retired pilots are owed, amount to only a small fraction of these profits.

We know that out of sight ...out of mind and that as retired pilots you may not believe that most of us were substantially harmed and are suffering ongoing financial loss.  Further, you may not know that many of us have gone back to work at jobs or with other airlines to try and survive the loss of our Delta pensions.  I commute half-way around the world every three weeks to flight instruct.  And I am but one of many of the Delta retirees doing the same type of work. I can assure you that commuting at age 65 is difficult and is certainly not my vision of what my Delta retirement would be.

HONESTY, INTEGRITY, MUTUAL RESPECT?

Prove it, Mr. Anderson. Prove to us that sitting behind Mr. Woolman's desk was more than a photo op.  Show the harmed Delta retired pilots, and their families that honesty, integrity, and mutual respect are not just empty words, but the actual goal of the Delta management team.  They say a lot can be determined about a society by how they care for their dead.  While our retired pilots are very much alive, it is much the same for any corporation as to how it relates to its retirees.  It has been 7 years since the bankruptcy and the unfair and harmful action that was taken against the Delta retired pilots with the brunt borne mostly by the 3,500 most recent retirees.  

Since bankruptcy, the corporation and active merged pilots and employees have healed and, as indicated by recent earnings, have been put on a prosperous path.  Our Delta retired pilots, on the other hand, have never  healed and, because of pension termination, remain seriously harmed. It is HIGH TIME.......to RIGHT this WRONG! We respectfully request a meeting within 30 days of the receipt of this letter to infomally plan a resolution of this issue.

On behalf of all Delta retired pilots and their families,

Robert D. Moser