Sunday, February 29, 2004
Dear All,
The best advice I've heard in a long time may have come from a 10-year old named Clate, the son of a Delta pilot. His team was losing - something they weren't used to - and another player on the bench was pouting.
Clate's advice to his teammate: "Suck it up, buttercup".
This reminded me of another phrase we've heard before that tells us "when times get tough, the tough get going".
Most of the pilots I talk with say we need to do something significant to help Delta Air Lines. Yet we are bogged down in a conflict of numbers and rhetoric.
Lack of definitive action is frustrating the masses and has a whole group of very senior pilots about to jump ship early -- May 1st -- who don’t have the information they need to make a good decision.
Their retirement lump sums are not in jeopardy and the company is not close to filing for Chapter 11 next month or in 2004. Delta's cash position is both helping and hurting our efforts to heal our larger problems.
The only reason to leave early now is if you are through flying for a living and have an "I" disease. "I can't see driving to the airport anymore". (Thank you Denny - I thought that was funny back in 1996 and still think it's humorous in 2004).
Or yes, you could retire if you still have your first wife, no teenagers, no mortgage, no tuition, no weddings, no toys, and no debt.
Down the road? It is possible Delta may have to file Chapter 11 - but only if we don't get a meaningful contribution from the pilots to help create a pivot point towards recovery.
I don't want to take a pay cut any more than the next guy/gal, but you can't ignore what the marketplace is telling everyone in our business. We cannot sit out here on an island - as Delta pilots - and believe everyone else in the industry is wrong.
Personally, I would have given my first born child (or at least my wife's Mother) to get hired by Delta. But my attitude didn't shift 180 degrees after I was on the property to an odd sense of entitlement where suddenly Delta Air Lines "owed me".
There are some in our midst who display that sentiment and frankly, it's embarrassing - especially from leaders - trained in the military who understand the sacrifice and unit camaraderie required to be successful at anything that involves more than one person.
Are we angry with folks like Leo and Fred - misguided leadership and apparent greed? Of course we are. But they're both gone in a matter of weeks. Time to move on.
Below is another current article from BusinessWeek (March 1st edition) that is trying to give us forewarning.
You can blow off everything I've written for the past year in this space - but at least consider what every other analyst is saying.
Respectfully, Mike Stark
Click here for the Business Week article
