As Delta CEO flies to Paris, workers sweat through grounding

Airline Flight Attendants

ATLANTA—“Where’s Ed?”

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA posed that question while on informational picket lines. They toil for rabidly anti-union Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian. AFA, the Machinists, and the Teamsters are jointly campaigning to organize Delta’s flight attendants, grounds crews, and ramp agents.

There are 20,000 ramp workers alone, and thousands more mechanics and flight attendants, all, right now, unorganized. That’s unlike their colleagues at the nation’s other three biggest air carriers, Southwest, United, and American.

The picketing workers suffered from grounded planes and sweltered on picket lines in Atlanta and the Twin Cities on July 24. Later, they toiled to get Delta back on track after a massive Internet/computer shutdown grounded the airline’s entire schedule. Delta took at least four days to recover. Other airlines recovered in less than a day.

And where’s Ed? AFA-CWA’s ad posted on its Twitter/X feed, asked. Answer: He had flown off to Paris to see the Olympics. (His spokesman said Bastian delayed the trip until the shutdown ended.)

Bastian’s flight out of the country caught the AFA’s eye.

“Ed is quite literally leaving us behind while we deal with this mess. While operations are looking better today, things are far from normal. Many of us are STILL far from home,” the union tweeted.

“We’ve suffered through days of system-wide chaos. Management has asked us to pick up shifts and avoid leisure travel. We have gone above & beyond to make sure that passengers get to their final destination safely and on time. Yet many of us can’t even get home.”

“I’ve been with the company for years,” said Twin Cities ramp worker Dan McCurdy in an AFA-CWA video. “I’m out here in Atlanta with a ton of support for my co-workers from all across the country, People are coming together and it’s beautiful. I’ve never seen more people come together for union drives than they are right now.

Best profits in the industry

“Delta workers produce the best profits in the industry and it’s time we were brought along to share in the gains we brought to the carrier.”

“If you haven’t signed a card,” authorizing the union recognition election, “now is the time,” McCurdy urged his Machinist colleagues in the video airing for workers all three unions are targeting. “It’s time to say we’re gonna stand up and tell Delta ‘We want a seat at the table.’”

The federal Railway Labor Act, which covers airline and railroad workers, mandates unions must get an absolute majority of all workers to sign the cards before a vote can be sought and scheduled. The National Labor Relations Act, which governs other workers, mandates 30%. Unions filing for elections under that law typically set far higher goals.

The three unions announced their joint campaign to organize Delta more than a year and a half ago.

Key issues in this campaign are erratic scheduling, management favoritism, lack of sufficient rest breaks between flights, and job security—especially against management retaliatory firings, which the unions say have been rampant. They’re also, under labor law, illegal. The unions have filed labor law-breaking complaints with the National Mediation Board, which is the NLRB for airline and rail workers.

Prior organizing drives by the three unions, acting individually, failed. This time they’re more optimistic, they told Atlanta radio talk show host Roland Martin, who also spoke in the video. That’s because this organizing drive recruited wide community and political support, the Machinists said.

“We have never been closer to an election,” Machinists Air Transport Territory chief Richie Johnsen told Martin. “This is in spite of the fact that Delta has spent millions of dollars on anti-union lawyers and consultants to try to deny their workers even the right to vote on whether to have a union or not.”

The political support includes a joint letter from about two dozen U.S. senators, all Democrats and independents, and a corresponding letter from more than U.S. representatives. One, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., is his party’s most frequent dissenter from its hatred of workers and unions. Both letters urged Bastian to enforce company neutrality during the organizing drive.

“Our constituents have informed us about Delta’s history of deploying union-busting tactics, including threatening employees with termination of their benefits, distributing anti-union literature, and hosting an anti-union website. These retaliatory actions are hostile to workers’ rights, and we urge you to commit to implementing a neutrality agreement” the identical letters said.

“A neutrality agreement simply consists of an employer agreeing not to engage in pre-election activities that influence workers’ freedom to form a union. Your commitment to neutrality would ensure management does not pressure workers into voting against unionization or delaying the election process. A neutrality agreement is the bare minimum standard Delta should meet in respecting workers’ rights and complying with the Railway Labor Act.

“All workers should have the free and fair choice to join a union, as is required by law.”

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CONTRIBUTOR

Mark Gruenberg

Award-winning journalist Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of People's World. He is also the editor of the union news service Press Associates Inc. (PAI). Known for his reporting skills, sharp wit, and voluminous knowledge of history, Mark is a compassionate interviewer but tough when going after big corporations and their billionaire owners.