Inquiring Minds Want To Know
If you get called into the office to see management for a Q and A, can you bring a fellow employee in with you as a witness? Asking for a friend.
Unfortunately as an At Will Employee, you have no right to a witness or much else. You are on your own and there’s no scarier place to be. Some anti-union people may laugh, but years or minutes later they find themselves victims of Delta’s disciplinary process. It’s horrible, it’s crazy, but it’s true.
To make matters worse, it’s not uncommon to be met with two or three OSMs or other Delta representatives when you walk in the room. That’s when you get a very strong sinking feeling. Contrast this to your rights as an employee with a union. You always have the right to have a union steward. Past practice at United, American, Southwest and Alaska dictates that for every manager present in the room, you can have an equal number of union reps to help you. There is no better feeling than to know that all of the resources of the union are behind you when you need them.
No Premium For Us?
Delta makes it a point to brag about how they charge a 20% premium above and beyond the rest of our competition. Think about this for a second; If each ticket from ABC to XYZ is $300, Delta is charging each of our passengers $360 for this ticket! That’s $60 extra every single ticket!
Is our pay 20% better than our peers?
It’s not, we’re actually lagging.
Is our retirement package 20% better than our peers?
Lol. It’s not, not by any stretch of the imagination!
Are our work rules superior to others in the industry?
Not by ANY stretch of the imagination.
Listen. We should love our jobs. We should continue as we’ve done to put our best foot forward. Then MOST importantly, let’s challenge these empty slogans to make sure employees are priority No. 1. Our profitability does not come from charity work. Me, you and our peers deserve total respect for the work we reliably produce!
Money talks and the rest walks.
Friends, it’s time to sign and a link is below.
Kaiser Permanente Workers Score Big
When the new contract for 75,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers goes into effect, the lowest starting wage will be $23 an hour ($25 an hour in California). Every worker will get a 21% raise over three years. There will be strong restrictions on outsourcing of union jobs, and major improvements in health insurance. The union also demanded and won measures to increase staffing, such as lucrative referral bonuses, mass job fairs and job training programs. More and more unions are winning substantial gains in negotiations through the use of union power.
Leafleting Passengers at MSP
On Monday, Delta ramp and cargo workers handed out hundreds of leaflets to passengers appealing for support for our union drive. While there were a few passengers that identified strongly with Delta management and were not supportive, the vast majority were friendly, with many expressing surprise that Delta workers are not unionized already. Many also expressed frustration with Delta changes to the Sky Miles Program. The MSP organizing committee plans to do this again before the snow flies.
LAX Organizing Committee Holds Social Event
Several dozen ramp workers in LAX passed through a social event at Melody’s Bar and Grill last Thursday, Oct. 12. These workers are part of a growing army of card collectors in LAX. The surge in union interest is being driven by frustration with the new bid, management failure to address staffing shortages and lack of a voice in any decisions.
How Management Does it in My Station
We are severely understaffed in my station. Even on heavy flights we never get more than three people and then have to work heavy flight after heavy flight with no help. If we complain to management, they cut us down to two people and then tell us to make it work. Frustrating as hell, day in and day out.
The New Bid Has Messed Things Up
My station is smaller and the new bid has taken away bid lines that employees have held for years, throwing their lives into chaos. Some employees that have held 40 hour lines for a long time have been forced to 30 hour lines. Employees that have second jobs have also had their lives thrown into turmoil because they now can’t work both jobs.
Up, Up and Away
Delta revenue is up 60% over last year. Profits are projected to be 20% more than last year. Delta is a money making machine. The group that is benefitting the most from this is the pilots. Why? You guessed it. They have a union. While we don’t begrudge the pilots the impressive financial gains they are making, they will continue to outpace us as long as Delta can give us the crumbs that are left from that table. We aren’t saying that we should be making hundreds of thousands per year, but we are saying that the percentage of increases (18% the first year of their new contract) should be the same and they could be if we were union.