Creeping Delay

The Air Transport Association (ATA), an airline industry lobby group acting on behalf of only a handful of its member airlines, has filed suit to stop the implementation of the National Mediation Board's (NMB) new rule change. Only one "legacy carrier" supports this lawsuit -- Delta Air Lines.

Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta, is also on the ATA Board of Directors.  This is the same Richard Anderson who repeatedly insisted all outstanding union elections at Delta must move forward quickly, in order to take advantage of merger cost savings.  It is also the same Richard Anderson who repeatedly ignored PMDL and PMNW flight attendant requests to agree to an immediate vote last year under the YES/NO ballot.

On Wednesday, May 26th, a status conference was held in Washington, D.C. regarding the Air Transport Association's lawsuit which challenges the NMB's recent rule change for rail/airline representation elections. Decisions reached during this status conference included moving the first court hearing on the preliminary injunction (originally scheduled for June 3rd) to June 14th. Due to this delay, the date for the NMB rule change to become law has now been changed from June 10th to June 30, 2010.

As we've discussed in previous Delta AFA communication, the first step in our representation election process is to file a petition with the NMB for "single carrier status" once the new and more democratic voting process is final. Since the effective date for the rule change has been amended, AFA-CWA's filing of this petition will also be adjusted accordingly.

Delta executives continue to place roadblocks in our path for a fair and democratic representation election. On Wednesday, May 26, 2010, the Delta AFA Campaign Coordinating Committee (C3) sent a letter to Richard Anderson calling for him to withdraw the ATA lawsuit so that we can move forward with our election and merger for the sake of the entire Delta family. It is now his decision to either continue delaying this election or for us to move forward.

Flight attendants at Delta are eager and ready to vote.  We firmly believe that a truly democratic election, endorsed by the independent government agency that administers rail and airline elections (the NMB), is not only warranted, but embraced by a majority of flight attendants at the new Delta Air Lines.

Our upcoming representation election will not only shape our careers at Delta, but our profession nationwide. As airline professionals, we are very familiar with creeping delays... thank you in advance for your patience.