All along, our biggest problem has been that the management team did not recognize that a 50 percent pay cut in a year and a termination of their pension plan ... if that wasn't enough to be the tipping point, I don't know what is. So, I believe that they (Delta management) recognized that.

Unwilling to achieve a mutually agreeable solution through negotiations, their 1113 filing amounts to nothing less than an attempt to bully us into compliance. Management is letting their own unyielding and unreasonable demands dictate a path toward confrontation and further failure.

If they refuse to negotiate and our contract is rejected, therefore we would not willingly work without a contract. Therefore, we would choose the time and place to perform a job action.

Faced with this management onslaught our only choice is self defense. We must defend the concept of the pilot working agreement itself. All legal means will be considered.

Their actions have put us in this position.

It's my recommendation that the pilot group vote for the strike ballot.

We remain committed to a consensual agreement, but we just have seen no movement. At this moment, management has refused to negotiate. They are still at $325 million.

If one party will not negotiate, it's hard to characterize it as a negotiation.

The pension is a serious problem.