Delta AFA Flight Attendant Hotline 3/19/2007

Today is Monday, March 19th and this is an updated hotline message for all Delta Air Lines flight attendants. Salt Lake City based flight attendant and AFA supporter, Paul Tanner reporting...

Is Blind Trust Bad for Our Career?

Recently Loren Neuenschwander, Delta’s managing director of restructuring was quoted in the March 2007 Air Finance Journal as saying that "it is likely that Delta will be involved in a merger in a year or two."

After telling flight attendants that a merger wasn’t in the plans for Delta -- and after Gerald Grinstein said that Delta wanted to remain a "stand-alone" company -- and after sending paid employees to Congress to lobby for the Keep Delta My Delta campaign, the specter of a merger raises from the ashes like the legendary phoenix. Only this time it isn’t a company from Phoenix, it’s Northwest or United, according to Mr. Neuenschwander. He also said “It is likely that once Delta is back on track, a merger will be on the cards, and the management of the airline will change.” That means the management making promises to us now won’t be the same one leading our company after a merger.

Were we lied to? Well, that remains to be seen. Should we trust our current management - or those unnamed persons who will be here in the future? If so, to what extent? The real issue here isn’t about trusting management, it’s whether 'blind trust' is a wise idea in the corporate workplace.

Trust is a great thing. It is absolutely necessary between friends and family, and the lack of it can break a marriage or relationship apart. However, when one enters the realm of business trust takes on a whole different meaning. It makes for smooth transactions and improved morale, but only the foolish would rely only on trust to protect their careers and livelihood. Even in the most friendly of business arrangements a contract is still a necessary tool to assure protection for both sides. Would your mortgage bank give you a home loan simply based on your good word that you would pay it back on schedule? A contract keeps both parties on the same page and on track for success.

It’s interesting that we can’t make a cell phone call in this country without a contract, but our own management wants us to continue working in this delicate environment without one.

Why would a company want to deny their employees written legal guarantees of what they can expect for their efforts? Could it be that a work group is easier to control without them? Could it be that costs can be controlled without input from the people who suffer the brunt of cuts? Could it be that having a non-contract work group makes a company more sellable?

The simple truth is that in order to protect ourselves in the future we need to have written, legal guarantees concerning our careers. Without these protections, our seniority and our very jobs are vulnerable. Both United and Northwest flight attendants are represented by AFA -- and both have strong labor protections in their contracts.

Delta to Announce Pay Raises This Week?

Delta is expected to announce several things to flight attendants this week. We anticipate being informed of the following:

Delta plans on emerging from bankruptcy by April 30th.
Delta plans to give a lump-sum cash bonus to all non-contract employees.
Pay raises may be instituted by July of 2007.
Improvements to our sick leave policy are forthcoming.
Stock shares may be offered to all non-union employees.

While these announcements are a positive step in recognizing the sacrifices of Delta flight attendants and they are certainly welcome, they fall short of addressing the comprehensive needs and protections Delta flight attendants deserve. Mostly, we deserve labor protective provisions in the event of a merger. We also deserve drastic improvements in our work rules, benefits and compensation. More importantly, if these enhancements are not guaranteed in a written contract, we will once again be left blindly trusting management to not take them away again at their whim.

Our Campaign is Growing!

We had some great campaign activity over the past several weeks and over 600 cards have come in to the AFA offices. We need to continue this momentum. We still have many flight attendants who have an expired card on file -- so, please, if you haven’t signed one in a while, make sure to sign a new card. We are still looking for Regional/State campaign leaders for the following states; CA, KY, IL, LA, CO, TN, VA, SC, PA, NJ, AL and CT. If you live in one of these states, we could use your help. Please email us at deltaorganizing@deltaafa.org. Operation Recruit is moving along nicely and the more flight attendant involvement we receive, the faster we can achieve our goal of an election and ultimately a contract.

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#