If at first you don’t succeed….

The WSJ reported this afternoon that Delta Air Lines is attempting to get its union leaders to abandon parts of the Delta pilot labor contract in hopes of pushing forward a merger deal with Northwest Airlines Corp. as early as next week.

In return, Delta is promising its 6,000 pilots pay raises, equity and a board seat in the combined carrier.

This reminds me. Where has Delta MEC Chairman Lee Moak been? He was so visible/vocal in the US Airways/Delta merger fight, but I haven’t seen or heard him publicly anywhere during this ordeal.

I’m still not that optimistic about these reports, if they are true. Because it sounds to me like even if the Delta pilots agree to these changes, so what? Both airline pilot groups are still going to have to agree on how to integrate the seniority lists.

Furthermore, it sounds like Delta is trying to strong-arm its pilots into coming to terms on a new contract — which would then take effect with a merger.

But where does this leave the Northwest Airlines’ pilots? They already make less than their Delta counterparts.

It  would seem to me that Delta is trying to get its pilots “in-line” with some sort of semi-sweetened contract deal — and the assumption is then that after the merger is announced, the Northwest pilots will then be “positively motivated” to negotiate a seniority agreement that would be acceptable to their Delta brothers and sisters, because they will want the same “sweetened” deal as their co-horts at Delta.

That is one big assumption.

Don’t know about this. Then again, the “we’ll let the pilots negotiate their seniority agreement before the deal” idea wasn’t a huge success either.

Ticker: (NYSE:DAL); (NYSE:NWA)

Technorati Tags: airline mergers, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, US Airways