The report says that Delta's pilots "are part of the highest-paid pilot=20 group in the industry". Anybody know who are the lowest-paid commercial airline pilot group in the= US ? USA Today CINCINNATI =97 Delta Air Lines' latest $1 billion concession proposal is a= =20 way to "exploit the current situation" and "gouge" the pilots, the chairman= =20 of the airline's pilot union said Wednesday in a strongly worded letter to= =20 the rank-and-file. The letter was yet another sign that the cuts the=20 company says are needed to survive could take awhile. "(Management is) foisting upon us a set of demands that far exceed the=20 economic situation the company faces," wrote John Malone, chairman of=20 Delta's branch of the Air Line Pilots Association, in the letter to the=20 union's nearly 8,000 pilots. "Management's proposal appears to have only=20 one purpose =97 to exploit the current situation and attack our profession= by=20 destroying our contract." Union officials said that the letter was not a sign that pilots were=20 breaking off negotiations, even though Malone said that the union "will=20 take another path" if the airline does not address pilot demands such as=20 getting other employees to share the pain and obtaining an equity share in= =20 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= =20 on a possible equity sharing plan =97 perhaps even including a voting seat= on=20 the board of directors =97 from management and further details on the Delta= =20 restructuring plan that's due later this month. Delta senior vice president and chief of operations Joe Kolshak said that=20 the company's latest offer was not part of "a take-it-or-leave-it process"= =20 in a memo to other workers. "We respect our pilots ... we agree the pilot group alone cannot save=20 Delta," Kolshak wrote. "There was and is no intent to be punitive or to=20 affix blame." Malone's letter came in response to Friday's release of the Atlanta-based=20 carrier's latest proposal for concessions from the pilots. Delta has lost more than $5 billion since the Sept. 11 terror attacks,=20 including $1.96 billion in the second quarter of this year alone. The=20 company's stock fell Wednesday, closing at $4.69 The airline employs 4,800 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International= =20 Airport, its second-largest hub. That operation also includes nearly 800=20 pilots, who are part of the highest-paid pilot group in the industry. Delta chief executive officer Gerald Grinstein wrote to pilots last Friday= =20 that the company was seeking a 35% pay cut as part of a concession package= =20 worth over $1 billion annually. That came in response to a pilot offer of cuts worth between $655 million=20 and $705 million annually that included a 23% pay cut. Malone also told union members that a more detailed analysis of the=20 company's latest proposal would come later this week.=20