Delta AFA Flight Attendant Hotline 3/12/2007

Today is Monday, March 12, 2007 and this is an updated hotline message for all Delta Air Lines flight attendants. ATL based flight attendant and AFA supporter, Luanne Morrison reporting...

It Might Be “Wheels Up” At Delta, But It’s An Unsettling Take-Off!

Last week Delta executives mailed a slick brochure to our homes filled with an assortment of new and exciting promises. And who wouldn’t be happy? After 6 years of life-numbing concessions, any hint of a raise or increase in benefits is good news. As professional Delta flight attendants, we need to look closely at these promises that were created with little-to-no input from frontline employees. The promise many of us find most disturbing is the brochure’s sixth point: 'Retirement: We’ll help you save for the future'. This is the third retirement plan to affect us and it is a far cry from our old defined benefit, the Delta Family Care Retirement Plan. Whether it is as good as the Cash Balance Plan that hardly got off the ground before it was frozen in bankruptcy, is yet to be seen.

As we look to the future, let's review history to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Let’s start with some basic truths. Delta management administrated our previous pension plans and they were responsible for the plan’s investment strategies. Management alone decided if and when contributions would be made, they decided when to freeze our plan and when to replace it with a more 'predictable' and less generous plan. Frontline employees had NO say in any of these decisions and yet we are paying the ultimate price. It's Time...we had a voice in our pension.

American Airlines is one of the most heavily unionized airlines in the United States. But unlike Delta, American avoided bankruptcy. In 2003, American Airlines' labor groups negotiated and agreed to make significant concessions to stay out of Chapter 11, but the employees' pensions were kept intact. Amazing, isn’t it.

On February 7th, Forbes Online Magazine published an article full of praise for American’s successful pension strategy. Quoting their Executive Vice President of Human Resources, the article states, "While many of our industry peers have not lived up to their commitments, American's management and employees have worked together to build a stronger company that is more capable of meeting its obligations. This is our core thinking." Maybe this is where management got their “Win Together” philosophy -- but you can’t help but wonder why they fight so hard to keep us from having any 'real' power to work together. By opposing our right to join AFA, our executives make it painfully obvious they want complete control. Wherever there is a need for complete control, there is never real cooperation.

American expects to pay out profit sharing this year to employees. Their CFO said that the profit-sharing plan is designed to pay out 15% of the company's annual pretax earnings above $500 million. Predictably, Delta is now promising its employees 15% of the company’s annual pre-tax profit, but how secure is this promise? I’ll tell you, it’s about as secure as our old defined pension plan, our medical benefits or any other employment conditions Delta reserves the right to change or modify without our consent. At least the union employees at American have it in writing.

Additionally, American’s stock traded around $33 a share on Thursday, March 8th. This is impressive when compared to Delta’s worthless stock which has significantly and negatively impacted the value of our retirement and savings. American’s stock went from around $1 a share in 2003 to a high of $41 in last year. Delta’s stock has gone from $13 for common stock and $73 for preferred stock in 2003 to about .72 cents today (keep in mind; you had no choice about owning stock in the ESOP portion of your 401K -- it was required with participation and for company contributions). Also, while the stock was tanking, we were still "purchasing" that preferred stock at the highly inflated value.

If we follow Delta executives' line of thinking that labor unions threaten a company’s success, we would have to conclude that American with its very strong unions should have gone into bankruptcy and gotten rid of their pension plans. None of that happened. Instead, American continues to hold regular meetings with its union leaders to share financial information and build on their “defined” pension plan.

Delta's leaders want us to believe that unions will destroy the “Heart of Delta.” That simply is not true. Unions work with a Company to succeed. That almost always leads to a progressive and inclusive management philosophy. Workers who form Unions help make management accountable. The relative success being enjoyed at American Airlines is a testimonial to this fact -- and acknowledged by their executive management.

And the Senior Vice President Award Goes To: Joanne Smith

The Delta AFA Steering Committee would like to extend our welcome to Joanne Smith, our new Senior Vice President of In-Flight Service. Though her time at Song/Delta has been brief we choose to be optimistic regarding her management. The press announcement regarding her promotion depicts a progressive, innovative and leading edge product developer with ample experience leading flight attendant “groups.” If this is all true, then we expect her to bring an open mind and respect to our representational campaign. The “old school” management style of reining control over frontline workers is dated, unsuccessful and disrespectful. In today’s ultra competitive economic landscape all workers must be valued - and there’s no better way to do that than with negotiations, bargaining and agreeing on a contract.

"Operation: Recruit" It’s Full Steam Ahead

Last week your Delta AFA activists and flying partners introduced the next phase of our campaign -- Operation Recruit which propels us ahead on our quest for a contract. We are looking to fill open positions in our mobilization campaign. We need your help – please lend your involvement to one of the following:

Phone Tree Activists – Join the campaign by letting us assign you ten (10) fellow flight attendants in your community for the duration of the campaign. You can even have your flight attendant friends or neighbors assigned to you. Simply CLICK HERE, then click the state you live in. An email will be sent to the activist(s) in your region and we will take it from there.

Base Mobilization Activists – If you are not willing to be assigned ten (10) flight attendants in your community, perhaps you might be willing to simply carry AFA cards, bag tags or other educational campaign materials with you on your trips? If so, send an email to deltaorganizing@deltaafa.org and we'll do the rest.

Shortly, Delta AFA supporters will be contacting flight attendants who have expressed interest in helping to support the effort. If a Delta flight attendant contacts you to help out, we hope you’ll offer your talents and support. It is incredibly important that we continue to grow our momentum in this campaign. We are moving forward at a positive pace and continued growth in our support base will push us further toward our goal of having a voice in our future.

Keep Your Eyes on the Post Box - You May Be Hearing From Us

Last week we began mailing reminder cards to flight attendants whose card has either expired or will do so soon. If you receive this mailing, please send in a new card. Also, we have enclosed four (4) additional cards in this mailer -- and we would like your assistance in getting four (4) of our flying partners to send in a card as well. We know we can count on you!

This concludes the hotline message. This message will be updated next week or sooner if necessary. In the meantime, take care of each other out there on the line.

-- To Listen To The Hotline, Call 1-800-424-2401, Press 1 Then 720 # --

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO
501 Third Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-434-1300

Delta AFA Hotline: 1-800 424-2401, press 1, then 720#