Airline and railroad employees are more highly unionized than employees in other sectors of the economy. But transportation unions recently petitioned the National Mediation Board (NMB), the agency overseeing airline and railroad labor relations, to change the voting process for union elections so that a minority of employees could determine the outcome of union representation elections.
Delta’s success is built on a more than 80-year record of cooperation — from a very successful merger with Western Airlines and acquisition of international Pan Am routes, to working today with the FAA to obtain a single operating certificate combining the Delta and Northwest operations. We are just weeks away from the one year anniversary of the merger. We’ve invested millions to combine our technology platforms, our reservation systems, and our fleet. Soon, Northwest will be completely integrated and customers will interact with one seamless operation.
However, politics now appear to be threatening our continued progress toward a single workforce. This affects more than 14,700 Delta employees in the Atlanta area alone, who are still waiting to resolve their union representation status.
Many employee workgroups at the new Delta have already had the opportunity to make the important decision of whether or not they want to unionize. Having union elections behind them gives employees certainty about pay, benefits and work rules going forward.
After months of delay, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) finally filed for union elections this summer. Then, just weeks later, they asked the NMB — the agency that oversees airline labor relations — to change the election rules.
As a result, more than 50,000 Delta flight attendants and ground employees remain in limbo, simply because the unions are trying to change the rules in the middle of the process to improve their chances of winning.
Of more immediate importance is the delay this is causing for Delta employees who are ready to cast their ballots about representation. The rule change request should not be holding up the elections already under way at Delta. A group of U.S. senators, including Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), voiced a similar concern in a recent letter urging the NMB to proceed with Delta elections.
The delay also is unfair when you consider that the NMB is allowing elections at other airlines to proceed under the current voting rules — even when those election requests were filed after the filings for Delta employees. The unions argue that the size of Delta’s work force is to blame. But in our democracy, we don’t subject California or New York to one set of voting rules because they have large populations, while setting other rules for Wyoming or Rhode Island. There is no reason for delaying Delta’s elections and we see no reason for the NMB to discriminate against Delta employees.
Our customers are benefiting as we become a seamless integrated airline. Our employees should not be left behind. It’s time Delta employees are given the chance to have representation issues resolved in a timely, fair and consistent way.
Richard Anderson is CEO of Delta Air Lines. Jerry Grinstein was Delta’s CEO from 2004-2007. Dave Garrett was Delta’s CEO from 1978-1987.
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