140 members of the House of Representatives have written to Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian telling him to stay out of union organizing efforts at the airline, and remain neutral. This is dumb.
- Union organizers, who stand to benefit from a successful campaign, are telling their story
- Delta must tell its story, so that employees can make a fully informed decision
- Why let one side propagandize employees? Only getting half the story is unfair to employees.
Delta Air Lines pays employees more than competitors. And Delta Air Lines did not furlough anyone during the pandemic. Union American Airlines and United furloughed roughly 35,000 flight attendants combined.
You’d think that unionization would be a tough sell, then, but most Delta employees are new since the last failed effort.
The union pitch is that
- things may be better now at Delta than competitor airlines, but that’s not guaranteed in a contract, and
- with collective bargaining things could be even better.
Ilhan Omar thinks flight attendants need to unionize to see a ‘fair share’ of profits. In other words, Ilhan Omar is an idiot.
Today, flight attendants from across the country are gathering at 30+ airports, including at MSP Airport, picketing for fair pay in response to continued corporate greed.
It is time our flight attendants see their fair share of the profits their work creates.
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) February 13, 2024
Non-union Delta pays more profit sharing than all other U.S. airlines combined. Omar’s tweet went out a day before Delta’s pre-announced profit sharing payments totaling $1.4 billion. That’s more than a month’s pay for non-union employees.
The payout marks an important milestone for Delta’s profit-sharing program, bringing the total paid out to employees since its inception in 2007 to $11 billion. Delta continues to lead the industry in profit sharing, with this year’s total greater than the pool of all U.S. peer airlines combined.
And Delta flight attendants are already the highest-paid in the industry, even apart from profit sharing. They have the highest hourly rates and they receive boarding pay, which no union flight attendants in the U.S. do today.
The best bargaining employees can do is to keep unionization as a stalking horse. As soon as they actually vote for it, the value of the threat goes away. The airline stops unilaterally raising pay year after year. They go into contract negotiations, and start saving money on pay while a contract gets negotiated. American Airlines flight attendants haven’t had a raise in five years.
The AFA-CWA, which is trying to organize flight attendants at Delta, reports that over 90% of their members are unhappy with their jobs at United. Delta employees seem to enjoy their jobs and to be proud of where they work. That makes a difference in the customer experience, which is part of why customers pay a premium to fly Delta and why Delta earns the profits that it shares with employees.
I wouldn’t want to be a flight attendant at American Airlines without a union (though the current flight attendants union there is highly dysfunctional). I wouldn’t want a union if I were a flight attendant at Delta. They’d probably be making less – waiting longer for raises, earning less from profit sharing – while paying dues for the privilege.
Members of Congress pushing for unionization at Delta don’t have the best interests of Delta employees in mind when demanding the airline step out of the way and let just one side message to them.
Democrats need their Union dollars. People and FAs be damned.
I fully agree with your analysis, but everyone in politics approaches these issues from their own political perspective. Of course, few of them actually care what’s truly best for these particular employees.
@Cairns is correct, over 95 % of all Union Political Contributions go to the Democrat Party. The thumb is very heavy on the scale when it comes to Democrats forcing Unions.
Today, unions are a necessary evil. Where is the job protection in a corporate culture that hires and fires at will? You’re over 40? Gone. You have cancer and need to undergo treatment? Good-bye. Your house has been destroyed by a hurricane/tornado/landslide/forest fire and you are now rendered homeless and have to find a new place to sleep tonight? Sorry, there’s the door.
Corporations use people like fodder for cannons. As a stockholder and investor, I love it – screw the little guy to the wall! Make me more money! As a human being who has been down and out, I abhor the corporate structure that is America today.
Just as the Biden Administration has evidenced its willful failure to control illegal immigration to achieve the goal of replacing current voting bloc with indentured illegal voters, so must this administration and its hanger ons in Congress must be prevented from interfering in airline management and union elections.
We should not forget how the government creation of Amtrak denied any meaningful check and balance on management and the unions.
Delta management is already supposed to be neutral. There shouldn’t be any letters required and a complaint can be made to NLRB if the union or employees feel that’s not the case.
Unquestionably flight attendants are better off at non-union Delta than at United, American or any unionized U.S. airline.
As I say I wouldn’t tell an American flight attendent to forego a union. But there is no upside to Delta cabin crew forming one.
@DA Pilit – they can absolutely communicate with employees in an effort to persuade them not to unionize. They can’t threaten employees or make promises over pay and benefits with the intent to influence employees to vote against a union.
Airlines can share information about the implications of unionization, including their perspective on how a union might affect the workplace dynamic, compensation, and other conditions of employment
– provided iit is factual and not coercive or misleading.
Well said. All of those legislators are dems.
Unions are still stinging over the tens of thousands of union positions that were lost when the combined DL/NW work force voted for thousands of positions to become non-union in one of the largest losses for unions in American corporate history.
And let’s not forget that Delta started boarding pay which esp. lifts the pay of younger, junior FAs. AA said it would match what DL is paying but no union wants to just match the proposal of a non-company. WN also agreed to boarding pay with its FAs. UA is still promising that it will make up to its FAs for whatever they miss by waiting – but that will be far from reality.
No one should be a FA w/o a union at AA, WN and UA but a union brings nothing to DL FAs or other workgroups.
If the Biden Administration and their pets in Congress insist on interfering between management and their employees in a union election, it will only create yet another group of employees voting Republican. The public realizes how the extreme Democrats push uncontrolled illegal migrants to replace current voting blocs with indentured voters dependent upon a political power.
We should not forget the end result of politicians creating Amtrak-total loss of check and balance on a politicized management and powerful unions.
I don’t think Delta non-union folks need to unionize, but it is worth reminding people that Delta took away the current profit sharing plan from the non-union employees unilaterally within the last ten years and reduced it to a much smaller pool.
The unionized Delta pilots are the ones that held firm for their current profit sharing program and are the reason Delta gave it back to non-union employees. Obviously, Delta didn’t HAVE to give back the current profit sharing plan to non-union employees but it would’ve been a big rift and selling point for groups trying to unionize the Delta FAs and agents.
Delta is a premium airline that offers premium in-flight services to its discerning, loyal, and attractive guests.
“…telling him to stay out of union organizing efforts at the airline, and remain neutral.”
Physician, heal thyself. The government needs to stay out of “union organizing” efforts and allow the market and individual rights to dictate the relationship between employer and employees. Unions, as currently structured in the U.S., are an affront to freedom of choice.
Unions are criminal enterprises that engage in racketeering.
Airline management may be greedy with excessive pay for themselves but the airline corporations aren’t greedy as most of them are near bankruptcy every 10 years. It’s the shareholders who suffer at the hands of both management and crew who blackmail airlines with threats.
Flight attendants should be paid well for good work. Unfortunately, the U.S. has dismal demographics compared to most European countries and the worst people tend to become flight attendants. Unions just mean flight attendants will do a worse job and get paid more than they are worth.
The Flight Attendants of Delta Airlines should look closely at the accomplishments, or should I say lack of accomplishments of the Unions at the other airlines. Then they should run away fast. The Union Representatives I have had the displeasure of dealing with in the past, are on the same variety of the proverbial snake oil salesman. Their main goal is to line their pockets which they are very good at doing at the expense of the Union Membership. Take a look at the salaries they draw
@GaryLeff You have no clue if there is upside or not. Work rules and Scope come into play when speaking of union or non-union. It’s not always about pay! If you don’t know…hush up until you know better.
Unionization should be banned. It’s a way bigger social negative than the purported benefits. AA FAs are a GREAT example of how unions make individual workers lives worse and in many instances much worse. I think it’s sad when anyone wants to sign up to be commoditized labor.
Unions are scum. So is that treasonous ‘rep’ and the rest of its ilk.
I guess I am missing the point. How does this affect my travel hacking? All that I see is a bunch of unedumacated posters thinking that their opinions are worth reading, and, unfortunately, this includes the OP.
Funny how MAX loves to bring up any tidbit of history about Delta while neglecting any negatives about anyone else including what Gary noted.
Delta might have wished to get rid of profit sharing and started with its non-union employees but obviously backtracked when pilots balked.
There is no chance that Delta would have given pilots profit sharing and not given to its non-union personnel.
MAX’s comments are particularly funny on a day that Delta employees collectively got $1.4 billion in their bank accounts – over twice what any other airline (UA paid) and 10X what WN gave its employees.
Instead of looking for dirt, MAX, how about you go to a car or boat dealer and see how many purchases DL employees made today?
Just so everyone knows it’s a small few that want a union at Delta. They are just loud, and manipulative well with their lies. The politicians aren’t doing this because they care. Watch the videos, its so disingenuous. Delta Employees just enjoyed it’s highest profit sharing ever and no it wasn’t thanks to the pilots. Delta Fa’s are not being pressured by corporate, and there’s no union busting from corporate, but you can sure bet the fa’s themself are doing it! We don’t want a union! The most of us are well informed of the tragedy it would bring if AFA were to ever come here! #nowayafa
How about American & United return the billions of dollars of our tax money for furloughing workers?
So it’s okay for unions and other non-relevant stakeholders to say and support unionisation, but **how dare** DAL even hints at opposing this.
It’s a free market. You can openly be against unionisation. Leftists shills annoy me
Tim
You need a life. On a topic about whether delta could take away profit sharing without a contract, yes. It’s relevant that delta has done exactly that recently. Unilaterally and the only major union at delta prevented that loss of long term pay. Facts hurt.. but again I don’t think they need to unionize when the union delta pilots seem to do the heavy lifting for all per profit sharing.
What a surprise you were being your normal nasty, bitter, alone self commenting on blogs on valentines night. 😉
Always amusing how you defend a company that fired you and act like you had anything to do with delta’s profits or union strategies
no, Max, DL simply did not take away profit sharing. They tried w/ their non-contract personnel, the pilots balked and DL kept it for everyone.
And DL employees took home huge amounts of money – about 6 weeks extra of pay. Far more than any other airline paid.
Continue to cling to your manipulated view of history, ignoring facts that Gary has noted, and then resort to personal attacks which are also lies because you can’t state the reality accurately.
So Max of you. I don’t have anything to do with DL’s profits or strategies but I do understand industry facts and will make sure you don’t EVER have the opportunity to spout your BS
It’s not all about money. Unionized Delta employees will have top pay and profit sharing.
So then what do they want that they don’t have? Fairness.
Non-Union Delta is a swap-meet of nepotism, cronyism and weaselism. People who haven’t put the work in getting awarded jobs they are not ready for not good-at and therefore do not perform to a competent level.
This is not a good recipe for customer service workplace harmony and above all SAFETY.
If you value your life fly Union airlines.
A union is like herpes. Once you get it, you have it forever. Tim Dunn is correct in that when a union is elected, then EVERYTHING is put on the table…EVERYTHING. The new union employees are then frozen at the current level and negotiations are put on the table. Meanwhile, the non union employees go on with their salary increases, profit sharing, vacation, flight passes, etc. Negotiations can go on for years…tit for tat. Then every couple of years, negotiations start all over while the non union employees go about their merry way. Delta Air Lines (get the spelling correct folks…not ‘airlines’) is a family. Sure, there are squabbles like any family but…the passengers and customers come first. So why would a union want in at Delta? To sap off the money that would otherwise go into the pockets of the people that make Delta what it is. Guarantee you that should a union move into Delta, the profit sharing for all employees will be cut to offset the union’s bloodsucking agenda. The Democrats in Congress are only interested in the votes to keep them in office and NOTHING ELSE. Look at the current state of affairs in foreign diplomacy, rising inflation, overspending and gawd knows the debt from printing money with nothing to back it up…all caused by President Paw Paw and thugs like “The Squad”, Chuckie Schumer and that old bag Mitch McConnell. The toilet needs to be flushed in November…BIG TIME. Oh, ALL Delta employees shared in the massive payout yesterday…Valentine’s Day…as usual. So, AA, UAL, SW and the like…how much profit sharing did your unions get for you…huh?
@Dan that is hilarious, Delta is unsafe because their flight attendants aren’t unionized, do you actually believe this?
Gary,
Dan’s comment shows how desperate the union movement is.
Fortunately, the law allows DL employees to make their choice and makes it very hard for any employee group to get rid of a union once they are embedded.
The pay and benefits difference right now speaks far louder than any member of Congress – let alone 140 of them – and companies do have the right to communicate w/ their employees.
As is typical, dems want a one-sided conversation where they control the narrative so that employees don’t have all of the facts.
Tim,
You can cut the personal attacks. Delta didn’t “try” to take away non-union profit sharing. They took it away. The Delta Pilots didn’t give it up during contract negotiations so then Delta gave it back to the non-union people since it pretty clearly showed the benefit of a union to the other employee groups. Not sure why you’re so riled up about actual history? So yeah… in an article where it’s being discussed whether Delta wants to keep the high profit sharing out of the goodness of their corporate hearts, no. They Don’t and they proved it quite recently. It was a Union that kept it for all Delta employees and good for the pilots. They should be praised for their negotiations.
Does that mean the FAs and Agents should unionize? Of course not. They’ve got the best of both worlds right now. An airline that is dying to pay them off to prevent unionization and a very strong actual union on property that keeps things like the lucrative profit sharing plan. But it is a fact and it is history about whether delta would take away this current profit sharing plan from non-union employees. They literally did. Very recently too.
Unions don’t mean good or bad employees. Southwest has long been unionized and, historically, has had far better service than Delta in my opinion. I’d put Alaska up there too generally. Also union. Unions don’t determine good or bad service, corporate culture, the people, and how management treats their people determines it.
I’ve been on good and bad AA and UA flights. I’ve been in Delta first class where the male Flight Attendant spent the entire two hour flight flirting with the straight guy seated next to me and wouldn’t leave him alone. Delta has a lot of great folks and some bad eggs too. You really need to calm down.
And “manipulated view of history”? lol. It’s a fact that delta unilaterally cut non-union wages by 25% (via forced reduction in hours) during the 2020 pandemic while there was a government giveaway to prevent exactly that. That did not happen at United or American or other unionized workgroup airlines (during the first bailout) precisely because the union contracts didn’t allow for a cut in hours but the Delta kept more of the taxpayer bailout for the company rather than their employees. There were absolutely voluntary leaves and buyouts but nothing was mandatory like it was for the non-union Delta employees during the first govt bailout. If you think the American taxpayer wanted their dollars to go to Delta corporate vs their employees (if they wanted to save any of these airlines whatsoever), you’re dreaming.
To your random rant… I was under the impression that AA provided back pay to those furloughed once the second government bailout came. I even provided a link to the US Treasury website stating exactly that. However, it appears I was wrong despite the treasury link since since Gary also provided a separate reference stating otherwise. If I’m wrong about that aspect. Oh well. At least I can admit when I’m wrong. I certainly am not going to live or die on anything related to AA, UA, Delta, or government bailouts. It’s a fun industry and I don’t work for any of those companies.
What got you so spun up today? lol
Frankly, the real quirk in US Law isn’t what Delta is doing or not doing to fight unionization, it’s that companies are not even allowed to say anything to their union employees about “de-unionizing”. I doubt many union groups want to de-unionize and I don’t mean to suggest that any union is eager to do this, but it is pretty messed up that in our legal system an airline can’t even talk to employees about the benefits of not being in a union or the process to do that when their union leadership denies the employees the benefit of a raise for five years or more.
Is it really that bad for employees if the Company was able to talk about the benefits of getting rid of their union? It would certainly be bad for the union bosses in DC living their 6-figure+ lives off the worker but a bidding war for employees hardly seems bad. The law seems written to ensure that once a Union enters the property, it can’t leave and the law has been written such that it’s nearly impossible for a company to talk to their own employees about the benefits of being non-union.
That’s what strikes me as one sided.
Max,
your view is manipulated if you thiink for one nanosecond that Delta would have continued to not offer profit sharing to its non-union employees once it failed to obtain the same from its pilots.
And the real issue which you don’t want to talk about is how much more Delta employees make NOW.
Selectively dragging up tidbits of Delta history w/o context is precisely what we expect you to do.
And unions can be de-certified but it is a whole lot harder to get rid of a union than vote one in for the first time.
Delta and Northwest’s combined employees did it after the merger for tens of thousands of jobs and unions are still trying to target Delta employees.
No sane Delta employee would choose a union right now.
Delta’s much higher profits make it possible for Delta to keep its employees higher paid.
I always love how you try to change the subject to something not being talked about when you have no idea what to say.
I’m quite happy for Delta employees and their profit sharing check. I hope they thank their pilots today since the pilot union is the only reason their check is that large. Delta DID take away the non-union profit sharing plan in its current state. The Delta pilot union is the reason they have the current plan today. Not sure why that’s so difficult for you to grasp. No one is saying delta didn’t give the profit sharing plan back to non-union people. They did. But only because of a union they couldn’t take it away from.
Would love to know what you think is out of context about Delta keeping taxpayer dollars at corporate intended for their employees and being the only airline to cut wages by 25% for all non-union employees during the first bailout. It didn’t happen at other airlines precisely because of their union contracts.
And yes. I’m aware of the decertification process and I’m also aware of how companies can’t do anything whatsoever to make anyone aware of the process or the potential benefit of it.
Oh! Great article about your chosen Nom de Plume in Texas Monthly this month. 😉 I knew of the guy before this but it’s always great to read up on your chosen stagename.
He does seem to share some of your cultural paranoia.
You cannot compare the negotiating leverage of pilots to flight attendants. Pilots are scarce and can easily shut down an airline, and pilots are often more financially secure and able to go without work for a period of time.
Remember that the American Airlines flight attendants contract does not have profit sharing in it at all! American added that voluntarily, outside of the contract.
Sorry if I made it sound like the two groups had comparable leverage. I couldn’t agree more, Gary.
it really doesn’t matter whether DL is pushed to offer higher wages and better benefits because of unions at other airlines or because of DL pilot unions. In fact, it argues for why DL employees don’t need unions and don’t want to pay for something that will lead them worse off.
let’s also not forget that Delta VOLUNTARILY gave its FAs boarding pay but pilots who have to negotiate everything get nothing comparable.
And that boarding pay was intended to disproportionately increase wages for lower paid and lower seniority FAs, the ones that Delta most needs to hire (as is true for all airlines) and also the ones that Delta gets to convince that a union is not in their best interest.
Failing to recognize the significant financial benefit that Delta employees including FAs get today while nitpicking on history w/o context is only something that someone that can’t admit straight up that Delta has a winning and workable strategy for employee relations – whether it is perfect or not is immaterial. It IS substantially better than its peers and DL employees could choose to unionize but have not.
The only real question at this point is how long it will take FA unions at the other 3 of the big 4 to match DL’s wages and benefits, let alone exceed them.
“how long it will take FA unions at the other 3 of the big 4 to match DL’s wages and benefits, let alone exceed them.”
In fact, APFA’s complaint over the economic terms of its negotiation with American is precisely that American is offering Delta-level wages but as soon as the union agrees, they know Delta will raise wages and they’ll still be behind. That’s literally what the union is telling its members about why this isn’t a good deal.
There is value to non-union flight attendants at Delta in staying non-union, and always having the threat that they could unionize. The moment they actually do it, though, the threat loses all value.
Gary is entirely correct with his comments. Congress should stay out of this. The flight attendants are much better off without the union. They currently have highly pay, better profit sharing and better benefits than the unionized carriers. All could disappear with a union.
your last paragraph is spot on, Gary.
Delta knows it and so do its employees.
Delta obviously wants to cut costs but they aren’t willing to risk a more unionized workforce- at least with the current difference in what they pay their employees.
What Delta has done is turn its higher investment in its employees into a higher quality operation (whether some people want to argue they don’t or not, it is verifiable) which generates higher revenue.
and they use the same philosophy with their non-union employees as well as their unionized pilots – and probably their other small unionized groups which don’t get near as much focus
“let’s also not forget that Delta VOLUNTARILY gave its FAs boarding pay but pilots who have to negotiate everything get nothing comparable.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that the FAs wanted and got this at Delta and then AA (on the table anyway)… but… I don’t think any pilot is crying about their lack of boarding pay. 😉
I would love for you to find a pilot at Delta or any airline crying about their lack of boarding pay. lol
the point is not about whether pilots wanted boarding pay but that Delta unilaterally did something for FAs that it did not give anything comparable for pilots.
And, contrary to what you want to believe, DL did not allow pilots to unilaterally remain with profit sharing. In fact, please post the amount of profit sharing that pilots that got that other DL employees did not get.
We’ll wait.
I don’t even know what you’re trying to say, tim
Get a grip or a dose of reality. You’re so strange
Of course delta took away the current profit sharing plan from non union folks a few years ago. Delta’s pilots did not give it up in their negotiations
What planet are you on? Sometimes you just need to cut your losses and stop replying
I could care less if anyone at delta unionizes but there are relevant facts about what ed bastian has already tried to do with profit sharing and the non union employees, you just hate that reality exists in your delta fairyland
Seems to me the primary purpose of a union is job security. Keep entry level pay low, shift the focus from performance to time in grade and get the employer to kick in more for benefits. Oh, and tie the pension to service years instead of compounding investments (which you can’t really do when you’re starting out as a minimum wage “trainee” anyway). But if you stick to it long enough eventually you’ll catch up to non-union workers in other firms.
And that makes it harder on the employer too. They can’t attract good candidates with the lousy entry level pay, so jobs go to the less qualified. And if the employer “adjusts” entry level pay it means everyone else gets a bump too. Some contracts will allow for hiring in at a higher grade but usually tied to experience, and from what I gather from airline pilots that doesn’t usually happen except when coming from a regional feeder.