Whipsaw It appears that the managements of Delta and Northwest Airlines have illegally whipsawed the respective pilots unions against each other. Delta's pilot union, knowing that there are many more senior pilots at Northwest, agreed to a new contract just hours before the merger that will pay them more and the Northwest pilots less as long the Delta pilots did not oppose the merger.

It must be noted that the Delta pilots refused to go to arbitration with Northwest pilots to have an independent 3rd party determine the fairest way to create a joint seniority list. I think that the Delta pilot union action qualifies, in John Stewart's new favorite phrase, as a "dick move."

Considering that the Northwest pilots are making about 1/2 of what they did prior to the airline breaking it's previous contracts in bankruptcy, I have a feeling that this is going to get very, very ugly. I think I'll avoid both airlines, if I can, for a while.  ¶ 10:59 AM