By James Pilcher
Enquirer staff writer

Delta Air Lines' latest $1 billion concession proposal is a way to "exploit the current situation" and "gouge" the pilots, the chairman of the airline's pilot union said in a strongly worded letter to the rank-and-file today. The letter was yet another sign that the cuts the company says are needed to survive could take awhile.

"(Management is) foisting upon us a set of demands that far exceed the economic situation the company faces," wrote John Malone, chairman of Delta's branch of the Air Line Pilots Association, in the letter to the union's nearly 8,000 pilots. "Management's proposal appears to have only one purpose - to exploit the current situation and attack our profession by destroying our contract."

Union officials said today that the letter was not a sign that pilots were breaking off negotiations, even though Malone said that the union "will take another path" if the airline does not address pilot demands such as getting other employees to share the pain and obtaining an equity share in the airline.

"We are really trying to get a deal done," union spokesman Chris Renkel said.

Still, Renkel said no talks would be held until union leaders got specifics on a possible equity sharing plan - perhaps even including a voting seat on the board of directors - from management and further details on the Delta restructuring plan that's due later this month.

Delta senior vice president and chief of operations Joe Kolshak said that the company's latest offer was not part of "a take-it-or-leave-it process" in a memo to other workers today.

"We respect our pilots ... we agree the pilot group alone cannot save Delta," Kolshak wrote. "There was and is no intent to be punitive or to affix blame."

Malone's letter came in response to Friday's release of the Atlanta-based carrier's latest proposal for concessions from the pilots.

Delta has lost more than $5 billion since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, including $1.96 billion in the second quarter of this year alone. The company's stock fell Wednesday, closing at $4.69

The airline employs 4,800 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, its second-largest hub. That operation also includes nearly 800 pilots, who are part of the highest-paid pilot group in the industry.

Delta chief executive officer Gerald Grinstein wrote to pilots last Friday that the company was seeking a 35 percent pay cut as part of a concession package worth over $1 billion annually.

That came in response to a pilot offer of cuts worth between $655 million and $705 million annually that included a 23 percent pay cut.

Malone also told union members today that a more detailed analysis of the company's latest proposal would come later this week.

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com