Flight Attendants Association meets in Atlanta as part of efforts to unionize at Delta

“We are all here to support the Delta flight attendants” in their unionization drive, Nelson said outside the Hilton Atlanta Downtown, where the convention is being held. “It was a great place for us to come together and show that unions want to stand up in the South, too.”

Kara Dupuis, a Delta flight attendant and member of the Delta AFA organizing committee, said she thinks “it sends a very strong message.”

Hundreds of AFA leaders and other union supporters took a break from lunch during the convention to hold a rally downtown Monday afternoon, with Delta headquarters less than 10 miles south .

But from Delta’s campus near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the company issued a statement Monday saying Delta employees “have repeatedly rejected union representation from the AFA and other groups at the over the past 20 years” and that the company “has a long history of providing services”. industry-leading total compensation.

Delta said that with a 5% raise taking effect June 1, its flight attendants at the top of the ladder would earn about $20,000 more than AFA-represented flight attendants at United.

And unionization in the South faces many other oppositions.

Among the speakers at the flight attendants’ rally in Atlanta was Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers union, whose union suffered a defeat in a representation election at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama last Friday. “We support each other,” Fain said.

Mercedes workers’ decision to reject the union was seen as evidence of the challenge facing union activists.

Fain, however, said Monday: “The momentum is still there. He said the result at Mercedes “was just a sign of the struggle in this country” for unionization, as companies wage anti-union campaigns. “It’s the same problem everywhere.”

Credit: Kelly Yamanouchi

Credit: Kelly Yamanouchi

Unions across the country have banded together more frequently in recent years, aiming to gain more influence. In 2022, unions restarted their organizing efforts at Delta with a more united front between the AFA, the International Association of Machinists and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – to create what they called the largest organizing campaign of the country’s private sector, targeting 50,000 Delta employees. , including flight attendants, baggage handlers and mechanics.

Nelson told flight attendant leaders at the convention that she wanted to “gather support” to file a union representation vote at Delta before the November general election. But this is far from certain.

Delta now has nearly 29,000 flight attendants, and union organizers need to collect enough signed authorization cards to represent the majority of flight attendants calling for a representation election.

And under the Railway Labor Act which governs employment relations in airlines, each card expires after 12 months. Organizers therefore face constant pressure to collect more and more cards, as cards expire every day.

National Voices

Speakers at the flight attendant convention included Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, who previously worked for the International Brother of Teamsters and the AFL-CIO. She said “work is essential, not just for wages and working conditions… (but it is) essential for improving safety.”

She cited an AFA survey of Alaska Airlines flight attendants that showed 10 percent said they were living with parents or relatives because they couldn’t afford the rent.

“If you’re worried about your finances,” she said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “it’s going to impact security in one way or another, whether it causes fatigue, whether you have to do more than one job, if you feel less able to report a safety problem.

She also said she believes union contracts can “provide provisions that go beyond what constitutes a minimum safety standard.”

Unions seeking to organize Delta rallied members of Congress to sign letters urging Delta to agree to remain neutral on unionizing. Last week, 25 U.S. senators signed such a letter, after more than 150 members of the House of Representatives signed a similar letter led by the House Labor Caucus.

Several Democrats in Georgia’s congressional delegation also wrote letters, but took a softer approach, urging Delta to “continue to adhere to the non-interference requirements of the Rail Labor Act” — essentially encouraging Delta to follow the federal law, to “accept any allegations of serious interference” or to “remain a good faith partner.”

At other airlines across the country, the AFA is working to lobby for new contracts for its members. The AFA has launched a petition to urge Delta CEO Ed Bastian to increase the salaries of flight attendants at Endeavor, a Delta subsidiary, and the carrier Delta Connection whose flight attendants are represented by the AFA . Endeavor, as a regional carrier, has lower pay scales than larger airlines like Delta.

“Delta Air Lines can afford to raise pay for Endeavor Air flight attendants right now,” Nelson, the AFA president, shouted into a bullhorn at the downtown Atlanta rally . “Instead, Ed Bastian received a $20 million bonus.”

Delta, for its part, said Endeavor flight attendants were working under a contract negotiated in 2020. New pay rates were added to the contract with further enhancements in 2022, which flight attendants board voted to approve. The contract now extends until 2027 with “leading” remuneration for the regional airline industry.