<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">I would say to those who think Yarborough is "right on" that his knowledge of the airline industry or recent Delta history clearly does not extent past what he sees when he scans the headlines. </font>
As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Leo Mullin, for all his business acumen, had approximately zero people skills. He thought nothing about playing workgroups against each other and lying through his teeth to get what he wanted. I've been saying that for over 3 years now while the Kool-Aid sipping Deltoids called me every name in the book as they defended the "Delta Family". On that front Yarbrough has it right, Leo was a cancer for labor relations and his departure will not be missed.
However, Yarbrough is selling Grinstein very short as far as his track record on labor relations goes. He is a proven fixer and is known as a fair man who keeps his word. The executive compensation package that Dick loves to attack was not a unique thing to Delta by any means - I know for a fact that similar programs existed at American, Continental, United and Northwest to name but four. It's very easy to use hindsight to say that Grinstein deceived the employees by agreeing to it, but at the time the package was initiated it was the industry norm.
Delta's future success or failure will depend on one thing and one thing alone - how much in cost savings Grinstein can squeeze out of DALPA. After Fred Reid's involvement in the Comair debacle, there was no way that DALPA would play ball with him. The board was lucky to have an experienced leader like Grinstein on hand to step up to the plate, especially since DALPA is willing to actually sit down and talk to him - a basic step that Leo had been unable to achieve for the last six months.
Give Grinstein time. If DALPA is still dragging things out in June next year, I'll write him off and write the airline off as dead. If he gets a decent concessions package from the pilots before that though, his tenure at Delta, no matter how brief it may actually be, will be judged as a huge success.
[This message has been edited by B747-437B (edited Dec 10, 2003).]