Fellow Delta Pilots,

It is with great confidence that my fellow administration members and I hand the reins over to the incoming administration as the new leadership of the Delta MEC. I know they will continue the efforts we’ve made over the past two years to ensure the interests of our pilots, and the profession, remain the primary focus. As we look toward an exciting and prosperous future, I’d like to take the opportunity to reflect on a few of the ways our team of pilot volunteers and professional staff have served the Delta pilots during my term as MEC Chairman.

Our Impact on the Industry

The impact on the current and future state of the industry through our recent efforts cannot be understated. In early 2023, we achieved not one, but two, unprecedented Tentative Agreements: our PWA and the Global Scope agreement. Our new contract, on the date of signing, was the most valuable in the industry’s history. Let’s be clear: it took courage to be the first major airline to reach an agreement, which set a firebreak that prevented our peer airlines from setting a lower market value for the industry. We also negotiated the industry’s first Global Scope agreement, which ensures Delta’s organic top-end growth and codifies a baked-in remedy in the event of a violation.

Additionally, we negotiated for and established the industry’s first Market-Based Cash Balance Plan (MBCBP). This endeavor began here and has now become the industry’s new standard vehicle for a Defined Benefit retirement plan that other pilot groups are working to adopt.

Contract Enforcement

Our team has zealously enforced our hard-fought PWA. We are in the final stages of gaining real-time access to Company data so, going forward, our teams can finally enforce the scheduling section of our contract in real-time.

We’ve also implemented Grievance Mediation for the first time at Delta, providing for a quicker resolution to disputes. To date, this has provided true value to the Delta pilots, mitigating the need for a lengthy arbitration process. We can now resolve grievances in a timeline that can be measured in months rather than years. So far, we’ve resolved five MEC grievances through this new grievance process. We’ve also been able to successfully achieve permanent, contractual improvements previously sought in Section 6 negotiations that were unable to be obtained at the time. An example of this is access to the scheduling Optimizer, which will bring a significant return on investment for both future negotiations and enforcing rotation integrity.

Dues Stewardship

While returning a budgetary surplus of over $21 million back to the pilots during our tenure, we also took steps to improve the organization’s efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness.

We transitioned away from the ACE for Unions subscription app to the Delta MEC-owned STS system. STS not only improves upon our prior capabilities and ensures that we now own the tools, but also saves millions of your dues dollars. The scheduling dispute queue has been reduced from 5,000 to less than 700, resulting in quicker response time for resolving pilot disputes. Going forward, STS will provide analytics to allow tracking and trend analysis on contract violations, thus improving contract and scheduling enforcement.

At the ALPA National level during the October 2024 Board of Directors meeting, we pushed hard for a resolution that prevents any negotiated retirement benefit from being subject to dues. This will return significant value to pilots’ current and future benefits.

Pay Modernization

Once our new PWA was nearly implemented, we shifted gears into making pilot pay accuracy and transparency a priority. As a result of our advocacy, management has increased their financial and resource expenditures, greatly accelerating their timeline to make this a reality for our pilots. Flight Operations leadership has conveyed its goal of achieving significant pilot pay transparency and modernization by the end of Q4 2025.

Closing

I couldn’t be prouder of the outsized gains our teams have achieved on behalf of the Delta pilots, and the profession, over the past two years. These efforts were the result of talented volunteers executing on the direction given by you, the line pilot.

It is incredibly important that each of you continue to influence your elected representatives via direct feedback, polling and participating in local council meetings and elections. Leadership is the courage to make tough decisions while facing differing opinions, goals and objectives.

It has been an honor to serve as your Chairman, and I want to express sincere thanks to the hard work of all our volunteers, professional ALPA staff and you, my fellow Delta pilots. Without your support and resolve, we would not have been able to achieve all that we have, and I’m optimistic that the new administration will not only continue this trajectory, but also build upon it, continuing to ensure we are the undisputed leaders in the industry.

Fraternally,