Suicide is(not) painless

Delta Airline Pilots have voted to go on strike. In spite of being told by the company that such a strike could put the carrier out of business.

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots, angered by management's effort to throw out their contract and impose deep pay cuts, voted by a wide margin to authorize a strike, union leaders said Tuesday.

The 94.7 percent vote in favor of authorizing a strike gives union leaders the authority to set a strike date. They didn't set a date immediately and gave no indication when they might act.

The results were announced in a memo to pilots from the chairman of the union's executive committee, Lee Moak.

An arbitration panel must decide by April 15 whether to void the pilots contract. The union has said it will strike if its contract is rejected.

The nation's third largest carrier, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has said a strike would put it out of business.

"The results of this ballot will send the strongest message yet that if Delta's senior executives are successful in their misguided attempt to reject our contract, we will strike," Moak wrote in his memo to pilots.

He added, "All too often over the past months, management has attempted to mischaracterize the defense of our contract as posturing, gamesmanship and, most recently, saber-rattling. They are wrong."

This wouldn't be the first destructive strike by an Airline union in the last year. Read here for what happened to the Northwest Airlines Mechanics union. In that case one union put itself out of work permanently. This strike could destroy an entire airline. It seems a sure act of folly to me to be thinking management is bluffing. The company is in bankruptcy already. What's better less wages or no wages at all? Apparently 5,000 plus pilots want to gamble their living away. It would be nice if they think of the thousands of others they will ruin in the process.

Hat tip- Outside the Beltway
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