Delta AFA Flight Attendant Hotline 5/21/2007

Today is Monday, May 21st and this is an updated hotline message for all Delta Air Lines flight attendants. SAS flight attendant and AFA supporter, Mark Stell reporting...

What does AFA have to offer me?

This has to be the most common question I hear when I am talking to my peers about joining the Association of Flight Attendants. Here’s a run down of the reasons I support our drive to join the Association of Flight Attendants.

We will be joining a union that represents 55,000 flight attendants from 20 airlines. (Isn’t it time we start asking ourselves: Are we really benefiting from being the "odd man out"?)
One of AFA’s top priorities is to finally guarantee OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) protections for its members. Currently, flight attendants (including us) throughout our country have very few federally guaranteed health and safety protections. Just imagine airplanes with filtered drinking water (for all that coffee we brew) or federal mandates requiring ALL beverage carts to have operable brakes!
As part of AFA, Delta flight attendants will have access to a variety of resources like:
- LEGAL ADVICE/HELP: Remember our colleagues who were terminated for flawed drug screens under Sharon Wibben’s tenure? They only got their jobs back after a pilot was terminated and ALPA’s subsequent investigation proved the drug lab to be flawed. The odds are that we’ll never need a lawyer during our careers but you never know when the next “flawed drug screen” is going to happen. If it ever does happen again we can count on AFA representation and legal assistance to ensure our protection. We no longer will have to wait until a Delta Union Pilot suffers the same injustice to receive ensue we are not terminated without just cause.
- EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: The AFA’s EAP program is very different from Delta’s. Their program is designed for flight attendant specifically. Below is the “Mission” of the AFA EAP program straight from their website. (http://www.afanet.org/eap/)
  The Association of Flight Attendants Employee Assistance Program (AFA EAP) is a confidential resource available to the members, their families and their partners to assist with personal, as well as work-related concerns. AFA EAP provides three distinct but interrelated services, including:
  1. Assessment, support and resource referral
  2. Advancement of professional standards through conflict resolution
  3. Response to critical and traumatic incidents. AFA’s objective in providing these services is to enhance the health, safety and well-being of its union family with the highest quality of peer support available within the EAP industry
- A GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS OFFICE: Since the founding of the Association of Flight Attendants over 60 years ago, AFA’s goal has been to improve the working conditions and lives of all flight attendants. They have fought to make the flight attendant job a safe, secure and respected career. Much of the time, this fight takes place with their employers at the bargaining table. However, as workers in an industry that is heavily regulated by the federal government, decisions that affect flight attendants’ daily lives and working conditions are also made in the halls of Congress and by government agencies. The AFA believes it is important for us to have a voice and a presence in Washington, D.C., and to have a seat at the table in Congress where decisions that impact flight attendant lives are being made.
- INDEPENDENCE: Imagine being a part of an organization that had "OUR" welfare at heart. The AFA has a whole team of flight attendants devoting their time and energy to the following issues: The F/A Profession, Carry-On Baggage, Cell Phone Use on Aircraft, F/A Fatigue, Aircraft Air Quality, Child Restraint Seats, Crew Interference, Drug Testing, Gambling, Mandatory Arbitration, Cabotage, Ergonomics, FlightPAC, FMLA, Pensions, Security Training, and OSHA Protections. What Delta flight attendants do you know who are working on these issues, and without prejudice or influence from management?

The above reasons are only a short list of the many benefits we can look forward to as AFA members. And if you have a desire to enhance our career and challenge your employee involvement goals, then think of all the avenues you have to be a part of the greater flight attendant profession!

Why can’t we just form our own union?

This is another question I hear while promoting AFA membership at Delta. And in truth, there is some merit in this question. Delta flight attendants have always been very proud of their individuality. We have a unique culture based on a southern heritage that is unique in the industry. If I thought we could get every Delta flight attendant to pony up $500.00 to start a union it might even be feasible. But the whole reason the AFA is so successful is that it has the resources of 20 member airlines - all working together to achieve its common goals. And as recently as July 2006 the Northwest Airlines flight attendants even voted to leave their independent union to join AFA for this very reason. The Delta flight attendants have so much to gain by joining our industry colleagues at the Association of Flight Attendants.

The Campaign Continues

Your Delta colleagues on the Delta-AFA Steering Committee are working hard to recruit more phone and base mobilizers to move our campaign to a representational election. If you want to be a part of this historic effort to move the Delta flight attendant career to an equal level in our industry, then please contact the campaign! It will be great to have your help. And as always, you are welcome to contact me personally (mark4afa@cox.net) with your questions and your enthusiasm to make Delta flight attendants a successful addition to the Association of Flight Attendants.

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#