Delta flight attendants set for another union vote

A win for the AFA would mean unionizing the flight attendants at an airline that has for decades managed to resist organizing attempts and is now the world's largest carrier. That could gain the union influence and affect negotiations of labor contracts across the airline industry.

"Anytime we go to the bargaining table, we hear, 'You know, we can't pay more than our competitors,'" said Patricia Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. She thinks unionizing flight attendants would be a "cultural shift" at Delta, where pilots are the only large worker group that's unionized.

Losing would cost the union its Northwest members and their dues.

Delta has long been the least-unionized major airline, despite more than a decade's worth of efforts to change that. The AFA lost votes in 2002 and 2008, with 29 percent and 40 percent support, respectively. A vote among ramp workers also failed, in 2000.

The company has invested heavily in its own campaign to fight the unionization message this time around, and a coalition of anti-union flight attendants is also forming.

The AFA held an organizing meeting in May with local politicians speaking as supporters prepared to campaign outside an employee parking lot at Delta's headquarters. They joined machinists union organizers handing out leaflets and countered anti-union flight attendants waving signs.

"This particular campaign has taken on added urgency," Friend said.

For Delta, more is at stake than just flight attendant unionization. A union win could also affect broader labor relations at Delta and lead to stronger support for unionizing other groups such as mechanics.

"You don't want to be the one group that's not unionized because the wage increases and work rules that go for the unionized group will be taken from the nonunion group," said Gary Chaison, professor of labor relations at Clark University.

Although the flight attendants union has been campaigning for months, it has not yet filed for a representation election. One key milestone the union had been waiting for was the confirmation last week of former AFA president Linda Puchala to the three-member National Mediation Board, which facilitates labor relations at airlines and railroads. The AFA believes her appointment makes the board more even-handed in deciding election-related issues.

Flight attendants union officials say they will likely file later this summer.

Mathew Palmer, a Delta flight attendant helping to lead a group of anti-union flight attendants, said he believes the union hasn't yet filed for an election because it doesn't believe it will win.

Delta has urged both the AFA and the Machinists union, which represents some Northwest ground workers, to file for elections to resolve the issue.

Delta has historically been able to win over employees with higher pay than at unionized airlines, but since its financial struggles and Chapter 11 bankruptcy, that's less true. Delta is now hoping flight attendants take long-term leaves of absence, but "it's possible that there will be furloughs," said Janette Rook, the head of the flight attendants union at Northwest.