a320av8r
Veteran
DELTA, UNION ORDERED TO START NEGOTIATING
The head of an arbitration panel on Thursday ordered the management and pilots union at Delta Air Lines Inc. to immediately begin negotiating for an agreement to avoid a collapse of the 77-year-old airline. In a strikingly impassioned statement at the end of nine days of hearings before the three-person panel, its chairman Richard Bloch chastised both sides and warned them that "time is very much of the essence and failure ... is not an option."
Make no mistake: you both are responsible for this proceeding," Bloch said in the hotel meeting room where officials of Delta and the pilots union, and their attorneys, sat on opposite sides. If the two sides fail to reach accord and the panel is forced to rule on whether Delta can toss out its contract with the pilots, he said, "This will be an abandonment of responsibility that will, and should, haunt all of you."
The head of an arbitration panel on Thursday ordered the management and pilots union at Delta Air Lines Inc. to immediately begin negotiating for an agreement to avoid a collapse of the 77-year-old airline. In a strikingly impassioned statement at the end of nine days of hearings before the three-person panel, its chairman Richard Bloch chastised both sides and warned them that "time is very much of the essence and failure ... is not an option."
Make no mistake: you both are responsible for this proceeding," Bloch said in the hotel meeting room where officials of Delta and the pilots union, and their attorneys, sat on opposite sides. If the two sides fail to reach accord and the panel is forced to rule on whether Delta can toss out its contract with the pilots, he said, "This will be an abandonment of responsibility that will, and should, haunt all of you."
