Delta Air Lines earned $5.2 billion in 2023 and will pay out $1.4 billion in profit sharing with employees getting about an extra month’s pay.
That’s more than all other airlines will pay in profit sharing combined, and the seventh time that Delta has paid out over $1 billion. However they aren’t yet back to 2019 levels – in February 2020 they paid out $1.6 billion.
Delta was first to offer flight attendants ‘boarding pay’ – pay for the time spend boarding the aircraft, in addition to flight pay which is standard in the industry. They’re also handing out $1,000 per employee to encourage good savings habits.
These are inconvenient facts for the Association of Flight Attendants union that’s trying to organized Delta cabin crew. So they’re forced into mental gymnastics but the $1.4 billion payout claiming:
We only have profit sharing because crews at unionized carriers negotiated it into legally-binding contracts
This is entirely false. American Airlines flight attendants receive profit sharing but it is not in their contract.
- American CEO famously said profit sharing is “not the right way to pay 100,000 employees that don’t have that much impact on the daily profits.”
- However faced with high profit sharing payouts at Delta, American instituted profit sharing outside of the contract.
- While Delta pays out 10% of profits, American has been paying out 5%. American also makes less profit. And they’ve historically had more employees to spread out those payments across.
In negotiations with flight attendants, American has put an offer on the table to include profit sharing at Delta’s percentage into the contract. AFA has this backwards, American flight attendants will get profit sharing in their contract – and boarding pay in their contract – because Delta offers it to their non-union cabin crew.
With Delta Air Lines Flight Attendant “Deltalina” Katherine Lee
I’m not sure I’d want to be a flight attendant without a union at American, though the union there has supported the company in imposing attendance points on flight attendants calling in sick, and has proposed effectively ‘B scales’ for cabin crew working reserve. At Delta a union won’t benefit flight attendants.
- Unions are better as a threat than reality. Delta will pay to keep flight attendants happy enough not to vote for a union. But once they pull the trigger on the union that leverage is gone. And that is the end of unilateral pay increases, bonuses and other improvements. It also could eat into Delta’s profitability, and therefore its willingness and ability to pay a premium. In other words, it means lower wages over time.
- Flight attendants represented by AFA-CWA are deeply unhappy. AFA-CWA has a scoring system at United which reports on flight attendant unhappiness at United. 91% of AFA-CWA union members at United feel unvalued by their company and 99% feel their issues are unresolved. Delta crew should ask if they want the experience of United crew that have been represented by AFA-CWA for years.
Working as a flight attendant is a rough lifestyle. You don’t get a consistent schedule and can’t plan a life around the job. Your schedule isn’t guaranteed with bad weather and cancellations. Most work trips aren’t glamorous and the pay at most airlines isn’t great. You deal with some real schmucks as passengers.
But Delta flight attendants have it better than their peers. They have something real at risk. This isn’t crew at the bottom where a union organizer can point to a better life somewhere else and say ‘we can get you that’. Unionized crew at American and (AFA-represented) United look at what Delta flight attendants have with envy.
We shouldn’t speculate whether Delta flight attendants should or shouldn’t be entitled to union representation. It is their job and their decision.
We don’t know their working conditions, what their experiences are, or their feelings as for the company culture. They are entitled to their opinions and deserve to understand their legal options, whether they want or do not want a union.
Well said Gary
It’s one of the few places Delta has a real advantage flyers can feel.
The attitudes are better though to be fair UNITED is a lot more consistent with good attitude FAs these days.
I’m a 32-year flight attendant for AA; this was my first job with a corporation, my first with an airline and my first with a union. I had lots to learn, when I started, about all three. My experiences with the APFA have been many, including the strike of 1993, and as much as my peers will disagree with me, I have to say that all things considered I would prefer to have been without a union all this time. Why? Because for me the pay and respect that Delta FAs have seems to seriously outweigh what we have at AA. It is no secret that we are currently involved in one of the ugliest contract negotiations with AA that we’ve ever been through, with no end in sight. Delta FA’s pay is always the measuring stick for what we ask for, which obviously begs the question “what, then, is the union good for?” The APFA is legally tasked with defending FAs when they’re involved in some scrape with AA, and many times they simply do not deserve to be defended. I think that generally speaking the American public has a thought about unions ‘fighting to keep lazy workers employeed.’ At AA/APFA that is absolutely true in some cases. For my many thousands of dollars that I have paid the APFA in dues over the years I feel like I have not gotten my money’s worth. Because I am a good employee that respects the job that I have and wishes that AA respected me in return, but that respect is hampered by AA having to deal with a union. Had I to do it over again I would hope to be hired by Delta – and avoid a union altogether.
During the NW-DL merger, unionization was a hot topic among the flight attendants. The pilots didn’t have a choice but keep their union post merger. NW cycled through leadership among their own union and when they joined AFA, it was just as downright useless. The headbutting with Richard Anderson was just as nasty. I’m glad post-merger DL does not have a union because happy wallets mean happy flight attendants. That translates to happy passengers.
Happiness can be contagious under the right circumstances!
Did Ed Bastian write this?
I’m an AFA-represented flight attendant and I’m very happy, so I’m not sure where you’re getting this “deeply unhappy” stuff from. Maybe AA FA’s are, but I’m at another airline, so I cannot speak for them. Our schedules are actually very flexible—more flexible than you are aware. If we get canceled, which for me, rarely happens, we are pay-protected! It is clear that you know nothing about the career. Maybe do actual research/interviews with real flight attendants before writing such an article in the future? Have a great day!
The “Deltalina” FA is more attractive than Gary , so her opinion ought to count for more .
Why don’t you interview some delta f/a’s ( and I don’t mean the anti union sheep )
See how happy we really are . We lose out on so much money compared to our unionized colleagues at American Airlines and United Airlines. It’s not just about base pay by a dollar or two more and a little profit sharing which was only 5% in 2023 and employees and flight attendants were pissed so they have to give more in 2024 so a riot wouldn’t take place . Delta f/a’s have no protection when unfair discipline takes place ( and there’s lots of it)
, and are required to do more work on old aircraft in poor conditions
Everything looks greener on the outside . If things were so peachy keen , why would so many Delta flight attendants want a union and why would the company want to stop them?
Delta flight attendants work in fear … that’s why we are a bit more kind to some of these entitled babies we fly around . … History has proved that unionized employees make way much more money than un – unionized employees .
I think with all these young new hires, they’re finally going to get the union vote pushed through. In large part, these new FA’s have no sense of work ethic and offer extremely poor service, especially the ATL based crews. Combined with the Marxist/woke agenda pushed by the company, should they expect anything less?
It’s not non-union it’s UNION FREE
Live Free or Die
UNION FREE
@Al … Skilled workers are not cheap ; Cheap workers are not skilled . Out-sourcing safety-related manufacturing for cheaper labor is a recipe for shoddy workmanship . If it is non-union , it is poor quality .
Keep one thing in mind. It’s not the AFA, IAM or whatever alphabet organization that want to unionize Delta. The unions only want the employees money in exchange for doing little or nothing for the rank & file workers while enriching a select fee employees selected to union management positions. It is the corporate management at UA, AA & SW that desperately desires Delta to become unionized so Delta will become as hamstrung as they are in their labor agreements. I bet of you dug deep enough you would find AA, UA & SW money backing the effort to unionize Delta. Then again I could be wrong. It’s happened before!!!
@T “We lose out on so much money compared to our unionized colleagues at American Airlines and United Airlines. ”
You really have no idea what other crew make, do you? American flight attendants are currently negotiating in hopes of getting up to Delta levels of pay for cabin crew. Don’t listen to the gossip.
@Saucy Stew “I’m an AFA-represented flight attendant and I’m very happy, so I’m not sure where you’re getting this “deeply unhappy” stuff from. ”
From… AFA.
I think the situation is right so observers can see what union employees get and what non-union employees get.
Unions ruin it and make it more $expensive$ for everyone.. esp the fliers!!
This is incorrect, and illogical. Basic economics dictates that the flight attendants will get a better deal through collective bargaining than by just accepting whatever Delta dishes out. It’s just a fact that in the U.S. union members make around 30% more than non-union members doing the same work. And, obviously, there is a very big pie here, to split. Whether or not Delta already treats them “well,” or whether they are better-off compared to their colleagues at American (which has far different inherent profitability) is irrelevant. You can be certain that without a union, Delta will offer the flight attendants the absolutely minimum that it feels it can get away with, just as it does its frequent flyers. No one ever accused Delta of being a charity; Delta is run as a greedy business, and brutally so.
Very well said, Gary.
The simple reality is that a Delta flight attendant with 20 years has had more opportunity to vote for a union and has consistently voted down unionization.
Delta is simply a better run company from a strategic and financial standpoint and the company has figured out how to financially connect the success of their employees to the strength of the company.
2024 will be the start of yet another cycle of restructuring in the US airline industry as a result of the MAX problems and Boeing’s inability to deliver a safe and reliable product.
Delta, thankfully, has limited exposure to Boeing products. Delta employees already have received pay raises, the only one of the big 4 that has new rates for FAs.
AA’s massive refleeting last decade will pay spades for them as they have an in-service fleet.
WN is a well-run company that knows how to keep their employees financially connected to the company’s success but WN is way too dependent on Boeing – a huge strategic mistake. Who knows when the MAX 7 will ever get certified. All 737 orders will be delayed but Southwest at least will have MAX 8s that they can rely on.
And then UA is by far the most vulnerable. Who knows when the MAX 9 will be returned to service and then UA’s strategic plans are built on heavy growth, mostly from Boeing products. UA FAs will be waiting a good long time for a new contract as UA’s earnings will fall and they are forced to use much of the aircraft orders they can get for replacement and not growth.
AS is highly vulnerable while B6 still has to figure itself out.
The next 3 years strategically belong to AA and DL. DL employees just happen to be in a position to watch it all w/ much fatter paychecks than their peers. FAs esp. will look at their peers and say “but for the grace of God and a savvy employer would I be in their shoes”
Delta FA’s got incredibly lucky because they win on most levels: Delta wants a nonunion cabin crew so they pay extra to insure that. Unions on most competitors keep Delta comparatively honest. Delta’s FA’s don’t have to pay union dues to get this comparatively high compensation. Put that all together and it’s a pretty nice haul for Delta cabin crew. Handled properly (which it usually is not) that could actually help unionized FA’s by having them push for pay parity.
“If it is non-union , it is poor quality.”
Proof sources, please..
This is an outsized anti-union skew. I really don’t know what’s better, but it seems to be favored by the pilots, of whom many are otherwise about as unwoke as you’ll find.
Profit sharing is not due to the benevolence of Delta leadership. It exists because the Delta pilots contractually negotiated it during the bankruptcy concession era. After the pilot group negotiated it into their contract management extended it to non-union Delta employees as well.
When the airline started making substantial profits there was tremendous pressure from management for profit sharing to be removed from the pilot contract. I remember Delta going so far as to remove or threaten to remove profit sharing for the non-contract employees. Management then played the have-nots against the haves, hoping that pressure from other employees would shame the pilots into giving up profit sharing.
Thank goodness the pilots did not. Having failed to bully the pilots, management again included non-union employees in the profit sharing plan negotiated by the pilots.
In college, I co-op’d at DAL in Tech Ops in Atlanta (late 1990’s). I worked closely with many of the mechanics who serviced the aircraft. They are (or at least were then) non-union. Many of the mechanics I spoke with came from other parts of the country (some, from places with other airline maintenance facilities) but chose DAL because it was non-union. They told me flat out that the threat to unionize was more powerful than the union itself.
What I remember most, compared to future jobs I had in union shops, was the cooperation between engineering and mechanics. In a union shop, I was threatened with a grievance because I was laying on the ground watching to try to ensure a critical piece of instrumentation didn’t get damaged during assembly of a test asset. Once, at DAL, we had some B767s DAL bought from Gulf Air. Their “standard” galley boxes were a different size from DAL’s “standard”, so we had to replace the bumpers inside. Because the aircraft was behind schedule, my supervising engineer brought me out to the plane with a screwdriver and put me to work. One of the mechanics came over, told me I shouldn’t be doing that, and handed me a power screwdriver to use instead because it was ergonomically better.
and yet, Jimbles, it is Delta flight attendants that are the HAVES and the FAs at other airlines that are the HAVE NOTS in terms of new contracts and that rich profit sharing, regardless of where it came from.
If AA, UA and WN felt like they had to settle with the pilots, the uncertainty regarding the future of the MAX now gives them no reason to rush settling contracts for FAs.
And, it should be noted that Delta FAs got boarding pay – a first for a large US airline – and the pilots don’t have anything comparable.
Unions didn’t deliver flight prep pay or boarding pay to unionized pilots or to FAs at other airlines.
@Tim Dunn – “If AA, UA and WN felt like they had to settle with the pilots, the uncertainty regarding the future of the MAX now gives them no reason to rush settling contracts for FAs.”
There’s always more pressure to settle with pilots. First, because pilots have far more leverage over an airline’s operations. Second, because pilots are going to get retro pay anyway while flight attendants generally won’t get much. In other words, the longer a deal takes with flight attendants, the less unionized flight attendants will make / the more the airline saves.
I have been a Delta flight attendant for 27 years and never wanted a union. Delta can make quick decisions when we don’t have a union. During Covid for example, Delta asked f/as to take leaves and they would applied unemployment for us. Nobody got furloughed. My friend at United got furloughed cause he was only 2 yrs in with the company. The threat of the union gives us more power to get what we want. We will get another raise this year and just got 10% profit sharing. Good luck to all the union airlines for their new contacts. I wouldn’t want to go on a strike on my off days that’s for sure!
I agree that the threat of unionization is more powerful than the union itself, but I feel that at some point, Delta will call the bluff. Some new management hellbent on cutting costs will come in and call that bluff and Delta FA (other groups) may eventually unionize.
Just my prediction
@Tim Dunn: American Airlines does not have MAX -9 equipment in its fleet.