Flufdriver,
Good points and I know of no one at Delta who would disagree with your take on Leo. In fact, you’re being a lot kinder than us, and we take it back a couple more generations.
The point is that DL/US is a poor match. If it does happen it will spark other combinations and this one will leave us the weakest of all. Not good now. Even worse later. There are good matches for DL and for US, but DL/US is not one of them.
I won’t go into my opinion of DP here. I’ve stated it before, it isn’t hard to find. But, DP is not the only one that approached DL. When Grinstein gave the same response he used at Western, to come back after we get our own house in order and we’ll talk, DP was the only one to respond as he did. Definitely not a class act.
As for animosity toward US employees, that is something new that grew out of the position taken by many US people, and is exemplified by posts on the DL board. When US was in BK, I often stopped by the US gates and talked with the people working them. Nothing really I could do, but some did want to keep up with any openings that might be coming up at DL. As this is Boston, and very few DL people want to transfer in here, we often had decent positions available. When DP’s hostile takeover attempt was made public, the DL board got flooded with US requests for DL pay scales. (It was at that time I quit talking with US workers at the gates, as that seemed to be their only concern too.) Once our pay scales were out, US posts shifted to; just lay back and take it because you have no say in the matter and I’m going to get a pay raise out of this. Those posts soon dropped the pretence that any good was to be found anywhere, and took on the flavor of the bar scene in the 1988 movie, “The Accused.†In case you aren’t familiar with the movie, Jody Foster plays a woman who was brutally gang raped in a bar while male patrons watched and encouraged the rapists.
Gotta go home and get a quick nap. I'm cooking this afternoon.
Bear,
You need to go back and hibernate some more.