Arbitrator Slams Delta, Pilots, Tells Them to Work Out a Pact
An arbitrator ordered the management and the pilots union at Delta Air Lines Inc. on Thursday to immediately begin negotiating for an agreement to avoid a collapse of the 77-year-old airline.
At the end of nine days of hearings before three arbitrators, panel chairman Richard Bloch chastised both sides and warned them that “failure is not an option.”
The pilots have promised to strike if Delta, which is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is allowed to void its contract and impose as much as $325 million in pay cuts. Company executives say a strike would spell the demise of the nation’s third-largest airline.
“Make no mistake: You both are responsible for this proceeding,” Bloch told negotiators for Delta and its pilots. If the two sides fail to reach accord and the arbitration 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.
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