AFA-CWA to Congress: Bargaining Rights Critical for Workers at 'New Delta'

AFA-CWA is calling on Congress to urge Delta Airlines executives to remain neutral in the current union representation election among Delta flight attendants, and further to monitor management's behavior, noting that bargaining rights are vital for flight attendants to be able to negotiate over the impact of the proposed Delta-Northwest Airlines merger.

Testifying today before a House panel reviewing the pending merger, Veda Shook, the union's international vice president, pointed to Delta management's history of anti-union behavior and said the airline is using consultants to oppose the employees' representation drive now underway.  "In the context of this merger, the company's anti-union tactics take on added urgency; the merger should not be permitted to become a vehicle for union busting," she said.

AFA-CWA is concerned that "Delta executives will use the merger to eliminate the rights of employees to have a seat at the table when the airline is fully merged with Northwest," Shook testified.  Because of arcane rules governing labor relations in the airline industry, flight attendants already unionized at Northwest Airlines could be in jeopardy of losing their union after a merger unless the Delta employees win their drive.

AFA-CWA represents about 9,000 flight attendants at Northwest and is campaigning to represent an additional 13,500 at Delta in an election now underway that runs through May 28.  Under unique airline election rules, 50 percent plus one of the employees must actively vote in the election; people who fail to vote are counted as voting "no union," encouraging management to focus on voter suppression, she told lawmakers.

After the merger, if the smaller Northwest unit was the only one unionized, flight attendants would have to win an election among the combined unit or potentially lose bargaining rights that Northwest flight attendants have had for 60 years.

"It is our hope and the hope of thousands of Delta flight attendants that they will overcome these difficult election procedures and decide next month to join AFA-CWA," Shook told members of the Taskforce on Competition Policy and Antitrust laws of the House Judiciary Committee.  "They will then have the right to bargain for improved work rules through a legally binding contract and the historic collective bargaining rights of the Northwest flight attendants will have been protected in the newly merged Delta Airlines."

Earlier this week, 26 U.S. senators sent a letter to the CEOs of Delta and Northwest urging both parties to "demonstrate a genuine commitment to cooperative labor relations" and to remain neutral in representation elections.  Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) who led the effort, stated, "Delta and Northwest Airlines should honor the loyalty and hard work of their employees by immediately offering them a seat at the table in merger talks."