Carl:

I agree that we are facing an uphill (to say the least) battle, but I have always felt that if you have a cause that is just and if you don't give up, you will prevail.  If you do give up, then no one else is going to look out for your interests.

I agree that Delta has attacked us with a vengeance and there is no limit to the amount of money they will spend to force their will on us.  What we have in place of money is time, a potential large group of volunteers and more important, a just cause!

We need to personally contact our retired friends and "pump them up" to get them back in the game.  I am so involved personally, because I am incensed at current Delta management and I refuse to let Grinstein and his high priced attorneys win this fight.  I could never look myself in the mirror for the rest of my retired life if I went down without swinging.

I have been working on a deal with the lawyers that represented me during my attempt to object to the DP3 Stipulation, to see if they will take our case on a contingency basis.  They understand that we have already lost a large portion of our pensions and stand to lose even more when the PBGC takes over next month.  They are doing part of the work now on a pro bono basis and I have agreed to pay them for some of their upfront costs until we make some headway in the case.

I don't want to give away any of our legal strategy, but there are several issues we can use to appeal the Bankruptcy Court decision or ask for a rehearing.  We are running up against the deadline for filing for a rehearing and not much has changed since last week, but if we can get Congress to remove the phase in period for the lump sum distributions for Delta (something I have asked everyone to write letters to their representatives about) we have a chance to get this reversed going forward.

I have also provided a great deal of information to the aviation writer of a large newspaper in a Delta hub to see if he will expose Delta's tactics against the pilots to the public. 

To be honest, it is hard to get sympathy from the average working person when he hears the Delta lawyer make the claim that the average Delta pilot retiree will still receive $75,000 per year in retirement benefits. (This figure has never been verified by Delta to my knowledge.)  I told the reporter that it was ironic to hear a lawyer tell me I should be happy with $75,000 per year in return for my lifetime employment at Delta, while that same lawyer charges Delta $75,000 approximately every eight days!

There is no doubt in my mind that this plan termination is not only an economic issue for Delta, but also a public relations campaign.  We all know that when times are tough and Delta needs help from the employees, they always demand more from the pilots because of the threat that the other employees will organize when the industry crisis passes and the company is profitable once again.  What a great way to fight this potential threat--terminate only the pilots' pension plan and do it on Labor Day!

That's enough for now, I need to get down from my soapbox!  Please talk to your retired friends and encourage them to get back in the game--the odds against us are huge but we can still win this fight.  (We might lose a few battles along the way but our goal is to win the war!)

Thank you for your interest.

Will