Delta pilots ratify pact

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines' pilots, in voting that ended Wednesday, ratified an extended labor contract aimed at easing the Atlanta carrier's planned merger with Northwest Airlines.

The union said 78 percent of the pilots who voted supported the proposed contract. The pact grants Delta's pilots annual pay raises of 4 to 5 percent and a 3.5 percent equity stake in the combined company. In exchange, the pilots agreed to more flexible work rules that allow Delta to schedule more combined flights, or "code shares," with Northwest. The new contract only takes effect if the two airlines complete their proposed deal.

It covers Delta's roughly 6,000 active pilots — but not Northwest's 5,000 pilots — and extends their labor agreement for three more years, to the end of 2012. Both pilot groups are represented by separate units of the Air Line Pilots Association.

Lee Moak, chairman of the Delta ALPA unit, called the agreement "an important milestone" that will allow the union to concentrate on reaching a joint contract with its counterpart at Northwest.

"Our intent is to achieve a joint agreement followed by a negotiated solution to the integration of the seniority lists," Moak said in a message to pilots on the union's Web site.

Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson, who was in Washington on Wednesday to testify at a congressional hearing on the proposed merger, welcomed the pilots' support.

"We remain committed to working with the ALPA leadership of both the Delta and Northwest pilots to reach a joint pilot agreement before the closing of the merger," he said in a news release.

The two unions tried but failed to agree on how to merge the two pilot groups during the airlines' protracted merger negotiations this winter. Delta and Northwest announced their proposed merger a month ago after Delta reached the separate agreement with its pilots.

Seniority is frequently a contentious issue in airline combinations because it is a key factor in determining pilots' pay levels and work assignments. Airlines and unions often take months or years to work out seniority conflicts, stalling the merger of the carriers' operations and leading to rancor among employees.

Moak said Wednesday that while such disputes may have to be arbitrated under ALPA's policy regarding mergers, "we believe that turning over the fate of our seniority list to an arbitrator and the timeline to a policy manual is an abdication of leadership."

Russell Grantham writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.