Over 19,000 Delta Air Lines Ground Workers Request A Policy Of Neutrality Regarding Unionization

BYALEXANDER MITCHELL

SIMPLY FLYING

PUBLISHED 10 HOURS AGO

The airline's workers are in search of accountability.

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SUMMARY

Delta Air Lines employees seek neutrality in unionization to ensure fair voting opportunities.

Despite Congress's and employees' urges, Delta's CEO's response to neutrality was unsatisfactory.

Delta employees have requested that Congress demand a clear answer from the CEO on remaining neutral in the unionization process.

On March 26, over 16,000 Delta Air Lines employees nationwide demonstrated their support for Congress' recent calls for the airline's management to remain neutral in the staff's unionization efforts. Despite urges from lawmakers and its employees, Delta's responses to the situation have proven unsatisfactory.

Neutrality during the unionization process is critical for ensuring that staff can best decide if a union fits their goals and needs without being influenced by upper-level management like the airline's CEO, Ed Bastian. When responding to Congress, Bastian's failure to acknowledge Delta's alleged interference in the unionization process continues to create concerns.

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With Bastian and Delta's c-suite unable to commit to complete neutrality in the unionization process, the carrier's employees are seeking additional action from Congress. According to the airline's staff, it is not important whether individual employees are for or against unionization, but rather that all have a fair opportunity to participate in the voting process to determine whether to unionize.
Broad support

The carrier's employees seek union organization rights from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), a massive multinational trade union with an extensive history of supporting worker's rights since 1888. A selection of Delta employees from across the country published a letter to Congress on 26 March 2024, addressing Bastian's concerning response to lawmaker's initial neutrality request.


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The letter, which included support from Delta employees across 46 different airports, firmly called Bastian to declare Delta's official neutrality in the vote. Specifically, the staff's request was expressed as follows:


"We respectfully request that you demand an answer to your request that Mr. Bastian adopt a policy of neutrality in worker organizing at Delta Air Lines. We need a Yes or No answer."

The employees went further, even suggesting the next steps if Bastian failed to respond to a direct request from Congress for the airline's neutrality. Should the CEO do so, the company's workers would seek a public hearing before Congress on the issue of unionization, one that could be entirely free from management influence.



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A problematic history

Earlier this year, on February 13, a group of 140 members of Congress, including high-profile representatives like New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, urged Delta to remain neutral because of its problematic history regarding union relations. According to Reuters, members of Congress were quick to indicate that the airline maintained a reputation for deploying union-busting tactics.

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Such tactics can significantly sway workers away from unionizing, including threatening the termination of employee benefits and distributing anti-union literature. Some lawmakers even indicated that an anti-union website was created, which conveyed the pro-union campaign in a hostile manner.

With this in mind, a request for a neutrality agreement does not seem too much to ask. According to lawmakers, such an agreement would only consist of Delta agreeing not to participate in anti-union pre-election activities. In the eyes of Delta employees, the decision to unionize should be theirs alone.