Delta Airlines Flight attendants, mechanics and fleet service workers are trying to join the union. Delta is the only mainline passenger carrier in the United States where employees in these positions are not unionized. As a result, Delta has the lowest proportion of workers represented by unions of any major US airline. Airlines based in Atlanta actively thwarted previous consolidation efforts, including claiming that union dues could be better spent on a new video game console.
Delta Air Lines workers are currently signing union authorization cards to join three different unions, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA for airline flight attendants, the International Association of Machine and Aerospace Workers for fleet service workers, and comrades for mechanics. Employees have grown frustrated with worsening working conditions as Delta weathers pre-pandemic profits and heads for record profits. Delta workers have seen fewer hours worked and less paid time off.
A Delta ramp agent at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport told guardian:
“They are getting rid of more and more full-time lines. Many of these jobs aren’t 40-hour-a-week jobs, but 32-hours-a-week jobs, so they’re not full-time jobs. You have a senior, they have dedicated their life, their body to this company, they paid the price. And to have a good weekend shift, they have to queue for 32 hours, which means a pay cut.”
The strain on Delta’s 80,000 workers and employees of other airlines has resulted in carriers having to operate dangerously. Despite the industry’s financial recovery since the pandemic began, staffing issues mean one that can quickly lead to a full-blown crisis like the one at Southwest.
