DEL.ICIO.USDELTA AIR LINES
Should Delta’s flight attendants unionize?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
YES: Businessmen dumped ‘Delta family’
Paul Tanner, Association of Flight Attendants activist and Delta flight attendant based in Salt Lake City:
Over the past 20 years top Delta management has changed four times. Only a few of the upper management at Delta are people who have been hired from within the company.
With the hiring of Leo Mullin in 1997, Delta left the model of internal leadership behind and hired a banker who eventually helped lead the company into bankruptcy.
This changed the culture of the “Delta Family.” The Delta family that I joined in 1987 is now a business run by businessmen.
Businesses run on contracts. By gaining a legal voice through representation, flight attendants at Delta can become a part of the process instead of just a result of it. With a contract both sides can expect accountability from the other. The result is a better product delivered to both parties.
We owe it to ourselves and to our peers to become involved in the careers that we have invested much of our lives in.
By having legal representation at one of the largest global airlines, we can help further the flight attendant profession for ourselves, our peers at other airlines and those who will join us in the future.
NO: Tensions would erase trust
Fran Shockley, Delta flight attendant, based in Atlanta:
Unions don’t save jobs, help employees, enhance the customer experience or add to the bottom line.
Did the unions help Pan Am or Eastern or Aloha? How about Alitalia?
Unions inhibit the process of making a business sustainable, criticizing the decisions to re-engineer the business and creating unnecessary tension between employees and management.
Delta Air Lines does a tremendous job of taking care of its employees, customers and shareholders. Delta regularly asks me my opinion and listens.
I have a voice. I don’t need to pay a union to talk to my management.
Today my manager said to a group of us, “Please know, I am always here to support you, so don’t hesitate to contact me. I look forward to building a lasting relationship with each and every one of you.”
This is the Delta way. Delta trusts me, respects me and cares for me.
Together, we take care of our customers and each other. We don’t need a union!
