Delta blasts union for ‘nasty' attacks
Delta Air Lines has fired back at flight attendant union charges of interference in a recent election, saying the company acted properly while union organizers made personal attacks against executives and anti-union flight attendants.
The Association of Flight Attendants “focused its nastiest attacks on flight attendants who joined with like-minded colleagues to oppose AFA,” Delta said in a filing to the National Mediation Board.
Union supporters “regularly directed personal attacks at Delta executives, in an effort to portray them as demons and people of evil intent who were unworthy of the flight attendants’ trust,” the company said.
The AFA narrowly lost the representation election and has asked the Mediation Board to order a new one, based on allegations the company acted improperly during the campaign.
The election was the largest and most contentious in a series of votes to determine whether various Delta work groups will be unionized in the wake of the carrier’s 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines. Most Delta workers are non-union; Northwest was heavily unionized.
The union argued in its appeal for a new election that Delta sought to “blot out the ability of Delta flight attendants to make their decision in an atmosphere free of coercion, influence and interference.”
In its response, Delta said an elections rule change this year required the company to launch a voter education campaign. In the past, a union needed support from a majority of all eligible workers in order to win, meaning those who didn’t vote were counted as opposed. Under the new rules, the union must win only a majority of votes actually cast.
“Voter education was especially necessary and appropriate in this case,” Delta wrote.
“An employer has a First Amendment right to communicate with employees about union issues, and to explain its views to its employees so long as it does so without threats of coercion,” the airline said.
Separately, a federal judge this week denied a motion by Delta to dismiss a case in which the AFA and the Machinists union sued Delta over merger issues. The unions had argued that Delta’s efforts to start the seniority integration process interfered with employee rights to unionize and bargain collectively. Delta had argued that the issue was under the jurisdiction of the National Mediation Board, but a federal judge in Washington on Tuesday denied Delta’s motion to dismiss the complaints.
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