Union Says Labor Contract Blocks Merger Attempt

The chairman of Delta's chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association Lee Moak says US Airways' talk of a merger between it and Delta is moot. ALPA says Delta's minimum flight hour agreement with its pilots makes a merger impossible under the conditions specified by US Airways.

US Airways touts the merger as a way for both airlines to save money by combining operations. Because of overlap in some markets, Delta would cancel some airplane leases and the two airlines could reduce total flying between them by 10%.

Moak told TheStreet.com, "The bottom line is they cannot do what they are telling Wall Street they will do in this merger. You can't downsize the overlap by 10% and at the same time say you are going to fly the hours that we have to fly under our contract."

Moak added ALPA's pilots won't agree to accept money instead of flying either. "We are required to fly," he says.

US Airways spokesman Phil Gee disagrees with Moak. "Our model takes the block-hour issue into account," he said Tuesday. "In fact, the model takes into account all of the issues that the Delta pilots have thrown up as insurmountable."

US Airways still faces a long uphill battle to complete its proposed merger of the two airlines. They face opposition from just about every entity with a stake in Delta except, perhaps, from some of the bankrupt airline's creditors. Not all of those who own paper on Delta have publicly voiced an opinion as yet.

Moak has other questions about the merger besides flight hours. He also questions how leadership would handle yet another group of pilots in its continuing effort to consolidate a labor contract with two others following US Airways' acquisition of America West. Chairman ALPA's US Airways chapter Jack Stephan says progress has been minimal on that front. "If how things are going in our world is any indication, we're skeptical," he says. "Labor is an afterthought."

For its part, US Airways continues to assert a merged US Airways-Delta airline would honor all labor contracts. The company says its merger with America West will be completed for the most part in the first half of next year eliminating concerns of managing three airlines at once.

As regards labor negotiations, US Airways president Scott Kirby told TheStreet.com, "We would love to have it done, but I don't think we will have completed all of the negotiations. It sometimes takes longer than either side would like to reach an agreement."

FMI: www.usairways.com, www.delta.com