"UNIONS DIG IN FOR DELTA FIGHT"

Here is the link to the aforementioned article published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/delta/stories/2008/08/05/delta_labor.html to read the entire story.

As Delta Air Lines works toward its proposed merger with Northwest Airlines, labor unions at the highly unionized Northwest are ramping up efforts to organize employees at the largely non-union Delta.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents about 12,000 employees at Northwest Airlines has opened an office in Atlanta across the street from Delta's headquarters for its ongoing campaign.

A MERGER OF ADDITION, NOT SUBTRACTION (MUST BE "NEW MATH")

This seems to be the motto of the merger used by Delta Air Line executives, because they say it so often. You have to wonder if they are saying it so much to convince themselves or us. Delta Vice President Robert Kight repeated it again several times on July 30, 2008 at a pension hearing held by The House Education and Labor Committee in Washington, DC. Each and every time it is said, we hear the bulls**t cough. Who do they think they are fooling?

The proposed merger of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines will create the largest carrier, thus resulting in more rank and file employees, more airplanes, more routes, more managers, more pension liability, more debt and the need for more fuel. This must be the addition they are talking about. And, they say this will reduce the need for fuel and there will be no layoffs of frontline employees. Can you hear that cough again? Once the price of fuel started to skyrocket, the talk of layoffs began, not because of the new Delta, but because of the fuel price…how convenient. Any way you look at it, a layoff is a layoff. So now there is a subtraction.

Northwest and Delta fly many of the same routes, so are they going to keep the same amount of flights in those markets? Bet not! What happens when they reduce the number of flights into a city? Are they going to keep the same amount of passenger service agents/customer service agents in that city when they no longer need them? What if they decide to close a reservation office? Remember, there will be no layoffs of frontline employees. If that’s true, will we be told in order to keep our jobs we will have to transfer to another city? What if we cannot move, what then? Will we get a handshake, thanks for all your years of service, and a quick push towards the unemployment line?

So what kind of protection will we as employees have when the much denied subtraction begins? Examples exist in every IAM negotiated contract. In the collective bargaining agreement negotiated between the IAM and Northwest Airlines there are protections and here are some of them:

·Exercising of Seniority: There is access to a system wide seniority list and within 10 days from date of issuance of notice of reduction in force or date of displacement, an employee shall file written notice of intent to exercise seniority. The employee then has 15 days in which to exercise seniority…to any location their seniority can hold.
·Layoff: Can stay on layoff status up to 60 months with their seniority intact.
·Layoff Pay: An employee, who has completed 1 year of compensated service and depending on conditions of layoff, shall be eligible for layoff pay. This covers both fulltime and part-time employees. Amount of pay is determined by years of service.
·Recall: Employees laid off or displaced from positions shall have a right of recall in seniority order to their former job function and classification from which they were laid off or displaced, provided the employee timely submits and continues to maintain a completed request for recall form on file. An employee can also return to work from layoff at another location through a bid procedure.

Management can say all they want about this being a merger of addition, but they will try to make it a merger of division by pitting non-union Delta employees against unionized Northwest employees. Delta management will say and do anything to keep Delta non-union. We just don't accept what management says as the gospel. They will giveth and then they will taketh away after you vote the union down. Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric. With a contract, all employees will get to vote on their futures. Remember, we all benefit when we say union yes!!!