From
Rob….. A State of the Effort address:
To : Former Delta pilots and their
families
From: Robert (Rob ) Moser
Subject: State Of The Effort
Eighteen months have elapsed since
the delivery of the petition requesting a meeting with senior management to
discuss the inequity and injustice created by the bankruptcy filing by Delta
Air Lines in 2005.
We printed the petition and your
accompanying comments in hard copy form. Each copy was sent via courier to each
member of the Delta Board of Directors at their current (non-Delta) address in
December 2012.
Numerous attempts were made to
contact Richard Anderson through his executive assistant to schedule a
face-to-face meeting as well as members of Delta's Board of Directors, to
request the creation of a working group to determine how to try and correct the
inequity caused by the bankruptcy. Richard Anderson never directly responded to
our request for a meeting. Each attempt was deflected with responses of
"he is out of town or he has a
full schedule" etc. We can
assume that he was prevented from meeting with us directly on the advice of his
attorneys. Honesty? Integrity? Mutual respect? as he is heard saying on a Delta welcome
aboard video? I suggest that sitting
behind Mr. Woolman's desk is the same as HIDING behind his desk.
Several members of our working group
met with Hollis Harris. Hollis was empathetic to our cause, but there was no
real traction with this meeting. Hollis is now 81 years old and even though he
was Richard Anderson's boss at Continental, he has no current involvement with
Richard Anderson or Delta Air Lines.
During my ground employee years, I
worked on several projects with Whit Hawkins, who was at that time the Manager
of Advertising. Whit was also empathetic to our cause but, as he pointed out,
he had been retired from Delta for over 20 years and had declined to have any
communications with Delta's senior management since retiring.
We communicated with 5-6 legal
groups to try and get a review of the bankruptcy rulings, however they all
declined to get involved because of fear of loss of business from a major
corporation like Delta.
In April, 2013, we received a
lengthy letter from Rob Kight, senior VP of pensions to arrange a meeting to
further discuss the petition and the company's position. The scheduling of the
meeting, that did occur on Nov 12th 2013, was not easily established
due to conflicting schedules including myself, Alan Price, Scott Murray, and
Mark Sztanyo. The results of this meeting have already been published in the
PCN but by way of review we had an open and cordial forum to fully share our
perspective and experience of real financial harm. Mr. Kight held out slim hope of any corporate
re-visit to our issue but promised to check with one other person and get back
with us. On Feb 26, 2014 he penned a
“Final” response to our issues and that letter was published in the Mar 2nd,
2014 High Life 202nd issue.
In November 2013, we met with a
legal team that is very much a "David Versus Goliath" group that was
willing to do a complete review of the bankruptcy proceedings and determine
whether or not we had a valid argument. Because this legal group has several
pending actions that may or may not involve Delta, I have been asked to not
publicize their name. After a thorough review, this team determined that
legally, Delta had followed the laws associated with the bankruptcy filing and
that we had, from the time of the discharge of the "plan of
reorganization" and the "discharge order" 180 days in which to
challenge the ruling of the bankruptcy court.
There were several attempts to
challenge the ruling. One was filed by Harry Alger, one by Richard Colby, and
several by members of DP3.. The challenges by Harry Alger and Richard Colby
were dropped. Wonder why? Hmmmmm...........
During the past 18 months, each and
every step that we took was communicated to DP3 and AT NO TIME was there ever
any conflict or midair collisions between the two flight paths. Because the 2
groups were focusing on different areas (DP3 on the qualified benefits and our
Effort on the loss of the non-qualified benefits), there was support and
agreement at all times.
So, where do we stand now?
Good question. As far as the
bankruptcy ruling is concerned, Delta has complied with the ruling and they
have no obligation to make right the wrongs that were done to 3500+ pilots and
their families.
Yet, how can they justify paying
full retirement benefits to the NWA retired pilot funded by the Delta treasury?
Different bankruptcy judge and a gun to their heads by the State of Minnesota
had they filed to terminate any pensions.
But, and I say but............our
law team has left the door slightly open. As these attorneys state, "THE
LAW NEVER SETS ON FRAUD."
So the question becomes one of
determining and proving fraud. Was ALPA fraudulent in the way that they handled
the retired pilots? Was Delta fraudulent in the way that they handled the
retired pilots? Can we provide documentation of fraud? Where is the
fraud and how do we prove it? In the time since our meeting with this firm, we
have attempted to gather facts and proof of fraud but quite frankly so far have
been unsuccessful and we will need help.
These are the questions that we need
answers to in order to push our case and try and restore our non-qualified
EARNED retirement dollars. I am prepared to continue the fight to achieve our
goals and right the wrong that this now very successful company has managed to
achieve on the backs of the former Delta pilots who were treated like thrown
away trash.
The bankruptcy laws and the courts
in the USA are not designed to favor the individual. They are designed to favor
the large corporations who donate large sums of money to our politicians who
benefit greatly from their generosity, USING OUR EARNED RETIREMENT DOLLARS.
I cannot begin to count the hours
that have been put in to further this cause and it could not have happened without
many participants and numerous meetings to lay the groundwork and devise
strategies to achieve our goals. The door is still open and I look forward to
continuing to find the honesty, integrity and mutual respect that Richard
Anderson so proudly boasts about in his "welcome aboard" video.
It is a shame, that regarding our
issue, Mr. Anderson is strictly a sound bite and has no real moral or ethical
conscience.
The fight will continue!
Best Regards,
Rob Moser
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