Latest News and Info

IAM Delta Flight Attendants

Delta Management Questioned for Potentially Exposing Flight Attendants to COVID-19

April 3, 2020
0 Comments
The IAM Delta campaign sent the following email to Allison Ausband, Senior Vice President of Inflight Services:

Allison, Today a video of an internal ALPA Delta MEC Skype conference was leaked on social media. It brought up some questions and concerns regarding Covid-19 reporting. Can you send us the policy of what happens when an active employee tests positive for Covid-19 and discloses their status to the company?

In the video, the ALPA MEC representatives state that there are 32 pilots who have tested positive for Covid-19, and probably many more than that. Will Delta management, or has management, informed the flight attendants who have flown with the pilots who have tested positive so that they can get tested also and protect themselves and their families? And if so, is there a time table for that?

The video also shows an exchange discussing what appears to be common knowledge amongst the officers. They state that the Chief Pilot instructed them not to disclose reporting information with flight attendants. Is there an investigation regarding the Chief Pilot in this regard?

Sincerely,

Julianna Helminski
IAMDelta Campaign

View the video.

https://youtu.be/DRg08Ug_gQk

IAM Fights and Senate Passes Bill to Steady Air and Rail Industries

March 27, 2020
0 Comments
The Senate late last night passed a bi-partisan stimulus Bill that will help stabilize the air and rail industries, protect all airline workers and provide the entire country with much-needed financial relief. The House of Representatives is expected to easily pass the Bill on Friday.

“This critical legislation was almost derailed by opportunists, including some in the labor movement, trying to add self-serving conditions to the aid our members and our industry so desperately need,” said General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “The IAM’s legislative team has been working around the clock, seven days a week since this crisis began with specific instructions that their priority was to advocate for our members jobs, not anyone’s unrelated wish list. Thankfully, with the help of tens of thousands of IAM members who contacted their Senators and Representatives, we succeeded and unnecessary conditions were eliminated.”

It is important to emphasize that the IAM fought for airline workers who are not yet in unions just as they will be treated the same under this legislation as unionized airline workers are. Highlights of the federal stimulus for airlines:
  • $25 billion in grants and $25 billion in loans or loan guarantees to the airline industry
  • The grant funds are EXCLUSIVELY for the continuation of payment of employee wages, salaries and benefits
  • No condition to open CBAs and enter concessionary negotiations to receive grant funds, loans or loan guarantees
  • As a condition to receive federal grant funds the carrier must refrain from conducting involuntary furloughs until September 30, 2020
  • Prohibition on stock buybacks until September 30, 2021
  • Prohibition of dividend payments until September 30, 2021
  • Limits on executive compensation
  • Limits on “golden parachutes”
“If not for all of Labor, this legislation would not be centered on workers as it is,” continued Pantoja. “It would have been a give-away to corporations and Wall Street. What we accomplished was substantial, but now is not the time to celebrate. Workers are unemployed, businesses are closed and people are dying every day in our communities from the COVID-19 pandemic. We still have an unprecedented crisis in front of us, so our work is far from being done.”

IAM Brings Back Best Contracts in Airline Industry at American Airlines Worth $4.2 Billion

January 31, 2020
0 Comments
The IAM yesterday announced five tentative agreements for over 30,000 workers at American Airlines. The tentative deals are the best in the airline industry with the highest compensation, best scope and job protections, industry top benefits and strongest work rules.

One of the top achievements in these negotiations was the preservation of the best health insurance plans in the industry: the PPO 80 (premium share 93/7) and PPO 90 (premium share 86/14) plans. Legacy US Airways IAM members are the only group of pre-merger US Airways workers who maintained the industry’s best health insurance plans. Legacy US Airways flight attendants and legacy US Airways customer service agents conceded those plans during their post-merger contract negotiations with American Airlines.

The IAM was also successful in maintaining and improving defined-benefit pension plans for IAM-represented workers at American Airlines. The tentative deals increase defined-benefit pension plan benefits by a whopping 38%. The IAM members are the only workers to have a defined-benefit pension the carrier. The IAM was also able to negotiate a 4% 401K match on top the defined-benefit pension plan. Combined, IAM-represented workers at American Airlines have the richest retirement security in the airline industry for all classifications, excluding pilots.

Coupled with the industry’s top wages and benefits, is the airline industry’s top profit sharing formula. The IAM-TWU Association is the only union at American Airlines to negotiate such a rich profit sharing plan.

It is time that all Delta Flight Attendants sign an IAM a-card, so a representation election can be held and Delta Flight Attendants can have the backing of the most powerful airline union in the world.

For more info on the IAM’s tentative contracts at American, click here.

UNIFORM UPDATE: STREAMLINED ALTERNATIVE UNIFORM REQUEST

January 28, 2020
0 Comments
Since the first revelation that uniforms were causing physical distress, IAM Delta has been actively searching for solutions. We collected data and uniforms, sought federal intervention from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and opened our RASH Report intake form for redacted symptomatic information from line flight attendants.

While other people would like to take credit for causing Delta to permit flight attendants to wear alternative uniforms and change its policy, it was IAM Delta’s demand that NIOSH conduct a health hazard evaluation in April, 2019 that forced Delta to (1) continue to offer alternative uniforms as an option (in May, 2019 approximately only 80 Delta Flight Attendants were wearing “off the rack black and white,” and; (2) permit Delta Flight Attendants to wear the alternative uniforms for the long term (more than 60 days). NIOSH’s report states on page 13: 

Substitution 
3. Continue to offer alternatives to the new uniform to employees who have developed symptoms and/or health effects related to wearing the new uniforms. Allow employees to use alternative uniforms on a long term basis, if symptoms resolve with this alternative. 

4. Allow employees to wear alternatives when their uniforms are being lined (or other uniform alternatives are being considered) so work schedules are not negatively impacted due to potential uniform-related health effects. 

READ THE ENTIRE REPORT HERE: https://files.constantcontact.com/…/ccf94356-df56-4708-b7b5…

Unrelenting pressure from the IAM, media outlets, and related class action legal proceedings have resulted in management announcing a streamlined approval procedure for alternative uniforms. While a recall is the preferred long-term solution, we do believe all workers should consider immediately removing suspected toxins from their environment.

Below is a one-sentence letter you can copy and paste to begin the journey back to health at work: 

TO: IFS_UniformTeam@Delta.com

Hello-

Please send approval email for black and white uniform.

Regards,

Name
Employee Number
Base

A simple request: please no symptom disclosure, no emotional plea, no embellishments. Document health changes for your physicians, and resist the urge to tell random FSMs how you feel—unrepresented flight attendants suffering the effects of uniform toxicity do not need additional management scrutiny. (To detail your individual symptoms and concerns, use the IAM Delta RASH Report. http://www.iamdelta.net/rash-report/)

Company numbers crunchers are poised to potentially pay out upwards of $10 MILLION to cover almost 25,000 flight attendants purchasing black and white—an unthinkable amount that could have been spent producing higher quality, union-made garments with a U.S.A. supply chain for “the best employees in the world.”

Until we vote to become IAM members and have tangible rights at work, act quickly, wear your black and white and your IAM pin proudly, and fly safely.

Stay Informed, Join the IAM Delta Email List

Click Here