Delta Flight Attendants Seek Rerun Election, AFA-CWA Files Interference Charges with NMB

Flight attendants at Delta Air Lines want a fair election, not one dominated by management interference, harassment and surveillance.

The flight attendants came within 328 votes of winning a union voice at Delta. The vote was 9,216 for union representation and 9,544 for no union.

Submitting numerous reports from flight attendants about management harassment during the campaign, AFA-CWA filed charges with the National Mediation Board calling for a rerun election.

“Delta and Northwest flight attendants deserve the opportunity to freely participate in an election without being intimidated by management and heavy-handed efforts to keep them from gaining a voice,” said AFA-CWA President Pat Friend.

When flight attendants, as required, logged in for their flight assignments, a screen popped up asking if they had voted and directed them to the NMB website to vote. “It’s clear to us that Delta was tracking the voting,” said AFA-CWA General Counsel Ed Gilmartin. “This kind of surveillance is a violation of the confidentiality and secret guarantee of the voting process under NMB rules,” he said.

AFA-CWA flight attendant leaders from Northwest, which merged with Delta, and Delta flight attendants outlined other ways that management harassed and coerced flight attendants about their vote.

At a news teleconference, Delta flight attendants Mary Ellen Moore and Toni Weinfurtner and AFA-CWA Northwest President Janette Rook and Vice President Daniel Grey said flight attendants were “inundated” with literature, banners, email and phone calls from Delta management. Some anti-AFA-CWA materials were even displayed on board aircraft.

They also said flight attendants were called by supervisors several times, not to talk about work schedules or job issues, but so that supervisors could deliver Delta’s message about voting.