True Tales From The Tarmac
He jumped into his tug and split his head open. Because of the heat he had taken the plastic out of his bump cap. At the emergency room he had to get staples in his head. When he returned to work, his OSM asked him if he had been wearing his bump cap. He didn’t want to get in trouble, so he said yes. Several days later, the same OSM asked him whether he wanted to change his story. Feeling that the best course was now to tell the truth, he confessed that he had taken the plastic out. The OSM thanked him for telling the truth. Five days later, he was suspended and then terminated. He only had a couple of years on the ramp, but he was true Delta Blue and had a spotless work record. Had he had a union this simply would not have gone straight to termination. In fact, it very likely would have been a verbal warning. Postscript on this is, he found out he had been terminated when Fidelity called him saying he had been terminated and what would he like to do with his 401(k).
Third Quarter Profits
Delta once again has announced record quarterly profits – $1.1 BILLION in profit this quarter alone. Industry leading profits, but Delta is never industry leading when it comes to wages and benefits. They wait to see what workers at unionized carriers get with their contracts and then fit themselves somewhere in the middle. Still time to change Delta. Start being a leader in every way.
Vacation
Did you know that maximum vacation accrual at Hawaiian Air is seven weeks, six weeks at American, United and Alaska. Only five weeks max accrual at Delta.
Union Labor is on the March
The Writers Guild has now joined Teamster members at UPS in ratifying a contract that registers historic gains. The Teamsters were able to win a contract that will give drivers $49 an hour by the end of their contract, along with other improvements. Over at the Big Three automakers, the UAW is still on strike and making new gains in negotiations every week. The UAW was able to secure a promise from GM that all Electric Vehicle Batteries will be made by union workers, something the automaker had said was impossible just a week earlier. All three companies have moved from promising 9% wage increases to 20% over the course of the contract. The UAW says that just isn’t enough, considering what the corporations are making and what workers had to give up in the past. It’s a good time to be union and have union power.
Tell Us Your Stories
Whether it’s about how the new bid is affecting your life or news of what’s happening in your station, send us your stories. You might be in the biggest hub in ATL or up in Green Bay. We want to hear from you. That’s how we keep Blue Notes relevant and fresh. Click here to submit a story.
Delta Equal Justice Initiative
Delta has a new six minute film they show to passengers when they fly. The film shows a group of Delta execs traveling to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the civil rights museum there. Peter Carter, EVP Legal Officer and Corporate Security explains how deeply he was affected by the visit. Keyra Lynn Johnson, VP and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer shares the same type of sentiments. They commit themselves and Delta to something called the Equal Justice Initiative.
The struggle of Black people to smash an apartheid like system that existed in the South and many parts of the North up until the late 1960s is indeed inspiring. Black teenagers and adults risked their lives to bring that chapter in American history to an end. This struggle is also bound up with the struggle for workers rights in places like Memphis where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while supporting Black sanitation workers in their strike against the city.
If Delta really wants to honor the memory of the Civil Rights movement and the legacy of MLK, they can not just pay lip service and claim this for their own. They must immediately stop interfering with our efforts to have a union election and at least adopt a neutral position toward our union campaign. Anything else is absolute hypocrisy.
Positive Employee Relations
That’s the name of Delta’s anti-union program. OSMs, DMs and GMs are called to ATL where they receive a full training on how to keep the union out. You may have noticed a lot of management missing from your station on a given day. Delta’s legal team is joined by an anti-union consultant firm that instructs managers on the do’s and dont’s of anti-union propaganda and practice. An anti-union consultant doesn’t come cheap, but Delta is willing to spend any amount of money to keep the union out because in the long run it saves them money and drives up profits.