union busting

More Delta employees soon will have the opportunity to decide on union representation after the Association of Flight Attendants and the International Association of Machinists filed applications with the National Mediation Board Thursday to resolve representation among Delta's flight attendants and "fleet service" and "passenger service" employees. The fleet service and passenger service employees work in Airport Customer Service, Delta Cargo and Reservation Sales.

The filings all came on Thursday, the day when new voting rules put in place by the NMB went into effect.

"This is one of the biggest decisions of your career because it can change our unique culture and because it is extremely difficult to return to non-union status," Joanne Smith, s.v.p., In-Flight Service, told flight attendants in a memo Thursday. "So, the best decision you can make is an educated one."

The NMB must take several steps before the election can be held. It must determine "single carrier status" for each group and must determine whether the pre-merger Delta and pre-merger Northwest groups are comparably sized. If the NMB makes those determinations, it will ask Delta to submit a list of potential eligible voters.

The elections will be under the new voting rules.

"Under the new voting rules, the election results will be based on the 'majority of people voting,'" Gil West, s.v.p.-ACS, and Neel Shah, v.p.-Delta Cargo, told employees in a joint memo Thursday. "This means that under the new rules if you do not want IAM representation, you will have to vote 'NO.'"

Despite Thursday's filings for other work groups, the IAM has not yet filed to resolve representation for nearly 700 Delta TechOps stores employees.

"I am truly disappointed," Tony Charaf, president-Delta TechOps, told Stores employees. "Hopefully the IAM will be filing soon to resolve representation for you."

No timetable for the elections has been determined.

"We will have much more to say about the new voting process over the next several weeks," Gil and Neel told employees. "The important point is that if you want to have your voice heard, whatever your view, you must vote. Please don't let others decide your future."

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Delta
• airlines
• management
• Unique
• culture
• DeltaAFA
• union
• busting
• Flight
• attendants
• Organizing
• NWAAFA
• merger

[lexco71160]

DELTA is like a f__king cult. All of the other major airlines pay more and have health care benefits for retired Flight Attendants. Just wait and see how ATL employees feel when former Air Tran employees make three times more than DELTA employees in ATL due to their merger with Southwest Airlines. I will be laughing my head off! Wake up DELTA junior employees!!!

[737823]

@skybarbie910 Agreed! I love Delta and glad the last of Northwest's identity is gone. It will be interesting to see how the AFA's interference charge proceeds, but seriously the union dictates the schedule, gets the deck stacked in their favor (rule change), then accuses management of interference when the workers vote no? "Opportunity, unity, respect"-it's time to respect DL FAs do not want a union. See you in the friendly (largely) non-union skies of Delta Air Lines!

[737823]

@knucklepunt how is money made on the back of workers when AA pays their flight attendants the most in the industry when adjusted for productivity (second to WN for overall pay) and has been bleeding red ink up until last quarter? The APFA members should be glad to have jobs and if they don't like what AA has to offer seek employment elsewhere. Plenty of other workers will gladly take those jobs at lower wages and more lenient work rules.

[knucklepunt]

737823, you're misunderstanding what that AA Flight Attendant was telling you. Corporations can't just increase work load for flight crew without limit. AA has done this consistently and APFA has had to step in to keep them in check. How would a company justify a steadily increasing workload, resulting in more money being made on the backs of its workers, yet still force them to work under what is now seven continuous years of concessions. You obviously feel the sky is the limit, unfortunately

[skybarbie910]

Thank god we voted AFA out!!!!!!!!!! Pro Delta, ANTI AFA! We get paid more, have better trips, they treat us well, and so on. Why do other passengers compare us and always say they can tell if we are Delta or Pre Merger Northwest? Delta provides awesome customer service and Northwest is mean. I would like to thanks the PMNW F/A's for voting the union out! YAY!

[737823]

@neilbrian77 Fair enough, I suppose we agree to disagree on the union issue. Truthfully, do you understand why the Heathrow Express tickets with APFA is ridiculous? I understand they have scope clauses and work rules but how is performing a simple task (which AA advertises) outside the contract scope? I ended up buying my ticket at the machine at Heathrow. But in all seriousness, I really enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work on the vids.

[neilbrian77]

@737823 saying something over and over is not going to make it true. FACT: JD Power awards all union carriers, lowest customer satisfaction...non union. im sorry i cant join you in your world of unions are bad at customer service. cause i live in reality, your invited to join me in reality any time.

[737823]

@neilbrian77 I'm sorry you feel that way, but you need to understand unions are very customer unfriendly. For example, last week on BOS-LHR (AA 763 J class) I asked to purchase LHR express tickets, and purser comes to my seat and says APFA has instructed them not to process sales. WTF? She said the FAs aren't receiving a commission from the sale, and this is their motive to get the company negotiating. Why do they need one? Aparently they chose not to perform a simple task.

[neilbrian77]

@737823 can you stop making up stuff. "the problem with US unions..." boo listen JD Power award winners alaska hawaiian and continetal are all union. so get off. you have no idea what your talking about. union means better quality if you look at awards. no baseless remarks please use facts. thanks.

[737823]

@neilbrian77 Virgin America, JetBlue have all won numerous awards for superior domestic service. To give you some idea, I paid $600 extra to fly BE BOS-ATL-TLV rather than JFK-TLV (union PM-NW crews and dinky 744 when I can have 777). Many of the carriers with superior reputations happen to be union ie Cathay Pacific. Problem is un US unions have instilled a sense of entitlement among employees and are very anti-business and anti customer.