Workers Face More Harassment as Delta, Piedmont Elections Get Underway

Management campaigns against union activists at Delta Airlines and Piedmont Airlines are in high gear, with workers set to begin voting soon.

At both airlines, management is pressuring workers in mandatory captive-audience meetings and one-on-one sessions with supervisors, who are demanding to know how they will vote. Activists at both airlines are getting written up for skipping these anti-union meetings or refusing to divulge their positions. At Piedmont, an AFA-CWA leader actually was threatened by a station manager after the flight attendant questioned why the manager was tearing union materials off the AFA-CWA union bulletin board.

Most US Airways employees have union representation. But US Airways, which owns Piedmont, has supported the hiring of a $300-an-hour anti-union "consultant" from Labor Relations Institute to lead its campaign. LRI is so convinced that its aggressive tactics will scare union supporters that it has offered Piedmont a money-back guarantee: Piedmont only pays if workers don't vote for CWA representation.

Within the past week, nearly 10,000 messages condemning US Airways and Piedmont for this anti-union attack have been sent to US Airways CEO Doug Parker, through an e-mail campaign by CWA, the AFL-CIO, and American Rights at Work. "Retaining LRI sends a terrible message: that Piedmont and US Airways don't respect workers' rights, and that you'll go to any lengths to prevent your employees from holding a free and fair union election," the message reads. Some 2,900 Piedmont workers will be voting from Oct. 4 through Nov. 7.

The election among 20,000 flight attendants at Delta/Northwest runs Sept. 29-Nov. 3. The vote is a critical union, especially for the 7,000 flight attendants from Northwest Airlines, who have had a union voice for nearly 50 years.