Delta Air Lines recently announced it would not furlough any flight attendants this year. Meanwhile, American Airlines and United Airlines plan to lay off thousands. Delta flight attendants are non-unionized while those at American and United are. Can we draw any inferences about organized labor in general from this dichotomy?
I’ll argue both sides below then offer my own thoughts. The catalyst for this piece was a tweet from a Delta flight attendant:
We officially are doing no furloughs of flight attendants at Delta. I’m taking another voluntary leave & love the range of optional leave opportunities we received. Shows one size fits all of @afa_cwa and @FlyingWithSara doesn’t work as THOUSANDS members get furloughed. ☹️
— Kris Fannin (@krisfannin) September 5, 2020
Argument #1: No Furloughs At Delta Shows That Labor Unions Don’t Protect Employees
The facts are undeniable. At airlines with powerful labor unions, flight attendants will be furloughed. By the thousands. Meanwhile, at non-union Delta, no flight attendant will face involuntary furlough in 2020.
Look at how well Delta flight attendants fared. Delta flight attendants banded together to collectively share not only the benefits of the good years but the sacrifice of the present turmoil. Through shared sacrifice, they took care of one another and will emerge stronger and better-positioned to extract concessions when demand for air travel picks up again.
Of course Delta made this much easier. Over the years, it has built up trust and rapport with its flight attendants by providing them industry-leading pay and benefits along with lucrative bonuses that have served as a strong disincentive for unionization. Furthermore, Delta offered generous early separation and retirement packages and opened up other divisions for flight attendants to transfer to.
In short, flight attendants at Delta did not need a labor union to protect their interests. Instead, Delta made a good faith effort to care for its employees precisely because union officials did not start from a bargaining position of unreasonableness.
Argument #2: This News Shows Why Delta Flight Attendants Need to Unionize
Any comparison between the labor situations at Delta and American/United is only helpful in the context of the broader health of each airline. Delta entered the pandemic well-positioned to weather it and its actions suggest less about labor than the overall health of the company. After all, Southwest Airlines is also relatively healthy and not furloughing any of its unionized flight attendants this year.
Furthermore, many flight attendants took an early exit package because they were afraid of being furloughed. Without union protections, Delta could lay off workers how it pleased, when it pleased. Thus, the “cooperation” from Delta flight attendants was more fear-based than actually beneficial.
Finally, Delta flight attendants do not receive minimum pay, so while flight attendants may still be employed, they stand to take a deep pay cut that will reflect their reduced flying hours.
My Own Thoughts
An issue that I struggle with (which is quite different than understanding it), is the seniority system built into any union. Some of the best flight attendants I’ve ever had the pleasure of flying with have been extremely senior. Some of the worst flight attendant I’ve ever had the displeasure of flying with have been extremely senior. Similarly, some of the the best flight attendants have been young…and some of the worst have been young.
But as much as I’d theoretically love a merit-based system for career advancement in every career field, that is such an inherently difficult standard upon which to judge flight attendants. Some folks may find a flight attendant abrasive while others find her humorous or even charming. Who determines whether a flight attendant is performing better than his peers?
Seniority plus a specified standard of service seems like the best approach. Every flight attendant should be expected to be friendly and professional and terminated if they are not. But I don’t see how a merit system, especially based upon customer feedback or supervisor feedback, would work in a practical sense.
As for the union issues, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Unions are extremely helpful in holding management accountable. I don’t like that unions sacrifice junior members for older members, but can at least appreciate they do so under the guise that junior members eventually become senior.
Delta is unique and I don’t know that we can make any general observations about unions based upon the situation at Delta. But knowing many Delta flight attendants personally, I must say the culture at Delta is refreshingly different than at American and United and that Delta’s aversion to flight attendant unionization has led to outcomes for Delta flight attendants that those at American and United could only dream about (I’m speaking primarily about the generous profit sharing).
I don’t think unionization is the right approach for Delta employees and I also think that the model of shared sacrifice demonstrates a far better ethos than the idea that “I’ve worked far too long and hard to sacrifice even a penny” (that’s what we hear from many senior flight attendants at both American and United).
CONCLUSION
It’s Labor Day in the USA and the issue of labor is ever-present but particularly salient during this difficult time. I’m so happy that no flight attendant at Delta will be involuntarily furloughed. Delta demonstrates that unions are not the only solution to protect employees and that employees have great power, even without a union behind them, to extract meaningful protections from their employers.
image: Delta AFA
Southwest seems to have a good balance. They have a great airline with great unionized people.
The generous profit sharing that Delta flight attendants enjoy today was negotiated by the unionized pilots. To keep a union away, the company made the decision to include the rest of the employees in this lucrative deal. The flight attendants were not given profit sharing by Delta due to being non union. It was earned by their union co workers.
And you think Delta would not have fought this intensely instead of generously giving it had the AFA been representing FAs?
And you’re wrong. Pilots negotiated a sweeter deal, other employees…without a union…demanded an equal bonus structure, and Delta said yes. Credit the pilots? No. Credit the boom times.
Delta management did not “generously give” anything to flight attendants. Unionized pilots negotiated profit sharing (PS). Management then gave non-unionized employees PS to keep them from unionizing. Later, they took a good portion of PS from the non-unionized employees. When those employees got angry, management was FORCED to reinstate the original PS due to threats of unionizing. IOW, both unionization and the threat of such are what achieves results. The current Delta management team is anything BUT “generous”.
Unions are a joke. Before Delta took over Northwest, us mechanics couldn’t wait for the merger because it would get rid of our crappie Union that was in bed with the company. The union did zero for people who got furloughed, ZERO! All the Union would do for us was take our money and do nothing!
You clearly haven’t done your research. The Delta pilot union is THE only reason ANY employee at Delta gets profit sharing. So your entire conclusion is based on faulty information to begin with.
Sorry, I don’t buy it. Profit sharing was equalized because FAs complained, not because pilots insisted upon it. Indeed, Delta saw it as a better option than letting the AFA use it a rallying cry for unionization. So what? The FAs got a sweet deal without paying union dues.
https://www.ajc.com/business/delta-increase-profit-sharing-for-employees/QLRA3pEMvz8lPWTcnP6sUN/
I loved your article, even though it seemed to focus on FA’s. When I started years ago working for the airlines, my company was Not Union and we were treated very well and paid well. We all had the same benefits regardless of full time or part time. I was hired full time. Seniority was clear cut and simple. After 9/11 I was laid off for exactly 7 months. I was recalled and have Never lost my full time status. Sadly we merged with a Unionized airline and we were out numbered. We have a deplorable contract that is vague and has No protections. Therefore with Covid-19, in spite of having 20 years seniority I was furloughed, granted and gratefully only from full time to part time. However as a single mother and sole support getting cut to 20 hours a week set me back. I genuinely thought 20 years would be enough. I lost my specialty position that I had been doing for 6 years to a part time employee that was trained in June 2020 to take the full time (required for that position). So I also lost the extra pay of that position. In addition I am Not allowed to be recalled to that position. Definitely not very equitable nor doing “the right thing”
Delta is not “furlough” quite yet at the moment, hence that’s doesn’t mean the management can’t do it anytime they want.
Indeed, they can do it when they want. But they have promised there will be no 2020 FA furloughs.
2020 has about 3 months left !
Seniority is totally irrelevant, just as in any other job function. How do you measure FAs performance, you ask? Well, their performance is much easier to measure than many jobs, but we all know a good FA when we see one, and so do their supervisors, so it’s easy to implement a meritocracy.
What is clear is that unions only care about their senior members. If cuts are to come, it is the younger, and likely better performers, that get the axe, while the old grumpy lazy ones carry on.
Any group or system that misappropriates resources is inherently bad. It raises costs for society while benefiting a few. If you were good at your job, you don’t need the protection of a union, because your skills are valuable to both your employer and competitors. Unions have outlived their usefulness.
Your position is valid only if every corporation treated their employees as people, rather than “units” to be added or subtracted at random to make the books look better. Unfortunately, many (not all) treat their employees as necessary evils, rather than as human beings with bills, dependents to support, etc.
Glad you’re not my boss.
What you saying are not true. There are senior people who are grumpy and lazy but I’ve flown with a lot of young grumpy, entitled and lazy young people too.
We have been promised a lot of things but there is always a “but”. I’ve been with the airline for a long time. I’ve been through pay cuts after pay cuts without having saying it. In the meantime, the pilot were unionized. They had to negotiate with them before they can do anything to them. For example, after 9/11 we as a flight attendant groups were force to take a pay cut, within a month, which they called it blended pay”. Then there was another pay cut throughout the company, we as a flight attendant group thought that we were exempt. No, we were forced to take another pay cut. The pilots who were unionized which meant that they weren’t part of the pay cut. So within a few months we took pay cut after pay cuts. Management gave themself a bonus after everyone took a pay cut. Their excuse was that to keep the talented management from leaving. Once the airline started doing well guess who got their pay back right away, yes you guess it unionized pilots. While the flight attendant group it took us decades for us to finally get our pay back to where it once was. Even after all the profits they were making years after years. We still lost our a week of vacation, sick times and our work rules changes all the time because there’s always a “but”. Then Covid hit. So please don’t tell me that union doesn’t do anything for you.
There is a lot of inaccurate information in this comment. One of them being blended pay which happened 2-3 years after 9/11. Also, the pilots did take a pay cut during that time. And I think it’s important to remember that prior to 9/11 Delta had never furloughed. Something the other unionized carriers could not say. And if we’re talking union vs nonunion none of these things are stand alone issues. You have to compare how they were handled at a nonunion carrier (Delta) vs a union carrier. Although I have not always been completely happy with how delta has handled things, I have almost always felt they handled them better than the union airlines. And many times we didn’t like a change, we all complained enough and Delta changed it. Not every time, but often. You can never have that kind of flexibility with a union.
Carmela you should probably find another job if you’re that unhappy? Maybe work for an airline that’s unionized because it’s clear that at Delta Air Lines a union does NOTHING FOR you. No way afa
As a former DL F/A (I began in 1981, right b4 ATC strike w/ Regan firing ATC union members) with no skin in the game anymore, i can share the truth w everyone, without bias. DL as a southern airline from day 1, always had a legacy of avoiding unions. No matter who was CEO ( i was there for 3 of them), Unions in general were seen as poison. Since pilots are seen as a much higher profession by management and the public, DL had to accept ALPA many years ago, and yes, they do negogiate very well and SOME benefits are shared if other groups complain loud enough. By not having a union in any groups exvept pilots, DL can change work rules, pay, furlough, hire, fire …. basically do anything they want. The lack.of.unions ALWAYS HELPS them offer early retirement packages of many different kinds whenever they need to, since there are no union rules to prevent this flexibility. I have friends who took all different kinds of leaves, part time retirement, less flying, free flights for.life with no retirement packages etc etc. All available to be offered over the last 50 years because there are no work rules except basic FAA and federal employment guidelines. Delta retains law firms year round since at least 1975, to fight unfair work practices lawsuits of all kinds, you would not belive the details. But DL ends up still saving money overall, and the DL F/As do fear things that unionized F/As do not have to fear, such as being spied on by undercover co workers, passenger complaints leading to suspension from flying, thereby losing pay, many other ways to be impacted …. and this fear, coupled w DL hiring people who are motivated by travel, plenty of time off, decent pay /benefits, & emotional connections to other humans, results in good hiring. Plus DL has almost always done extensive background checks, psychological testing, etc. This has DL packed w F/As who are happy and highly motivated.
If a union comes calling, management goes to work w huge F/A conference calls, meetings, motivational talks, you name it, they try and keep unions at bay. Unions have always been an unspoken bad word at Delta, except for the royal pilots, and that is why pilots take the brunt of any furloughs, they are typically slightly overpaid /overemployed as group and mgmt has no flex because of union rules, except to furlough. And remember… furlough does not mean laid off or fired… it means take leave with the option of coming back if company needs you. Pilots are VERY aware of this possibility from the moment they are hired
Let’s not forget that what Delta gives their flight attendants is based on what their unionized counterparts have fought for. They benefit from the unions which set the bar. I only see Delta copying what their union counterparts have fought for.
If it wasn’t for Atlanta based delta flight attendants, Delta would have been unionized years ago. The southern girls drink the koolaid and say yes sir and no sir to anything. Let’s wait until 2021 and see how well these nonunion flight attendants fare.
Do you think this would be the result if AFA was not continuously knocking at the door? i’d guess probably not.
The officers of a labor union have to be re-elected, in most cases, every year, they simply must do what they can do to save the most flight attendants, while at the same time being elected-reelected.
If every management was as principled and generous as Big D’s; labor unions might not have a place in our society, but, alas that is definatly not the case.
They do what they can to save the most senior FAs no matter what the consequences for the juniors. That’s my problem. But you are right. If United and American treated their employees like Delta, there would be a far smaller need for unions.
I was on an SQ flight and talking to the in flight service manager. I mentioned how there really is no equivalent position in the US as it’s just the flight attendants. She asked me how the airlines ensures the service is carried out to their standard and I replied exactly.
Your point about profit sharing is completely invalid. The reason Delta has such a generous profit sharing program is because of it’s pilot’s union. The pilot’s union at Delta negotiated it as part of their contract Delta then extended it to the other employee groups out of fairness. If the pilot’s union hadn’t negotiated that generous percentage, it is highly unlikely the other employee groups would be receiving anywhere near that amount and in fact would likely be receiving much smaller percentages, closer to what the flight attendants receive at the other major airlines.
Second, no airline employee will likely see any profit sharing bonus for several years given the way Covid has impacted the industry.
With those facts in mind what would your opinion be?
A lot of people don’t know that the biggest reason Delta has a huge profit share is because 45% of their work force is part time with no benefits , it’s easy to hand out 14% profit share when almost half the people there make $18,000 for the whole year ..but the full timers do get a fat check since they do make an average of $65k a year .. non union killed full time positions at Delta when they merged with Northwest ..
Mike, see above. I dispute your premise.
You fail to mention the 1491 Delta pilots(hostages), represented by the Air Lines Pilot Association who will be furloughed on 1 October, this is straight out of Delta management’s union busting playbook. Anything to keep the AFA or TWA off the property. The problem is that flight attendants can take unpaid leave and make more mo he collecting unemployment be exits than they can working. It doesn’t work that way for the higher paid pilot group.
I’m a Delta FA on leave and I’m am making a fraction of what I make while flying. The federal stimulus made that a larger fraction but it was still less than half and now without it it’s around a fifth.
What was your position on joining the union before COVID-19 and has it changed?
I have never wanted a union at Delta because I never felt we needed one. Pre-covid and post-covid.
I work for a unionized airline as a flight attendant. I am senior . You cannot judge the performance of a flight attendant as we are an absentee workforce. There are 25 thousand of us . We need a union to represent us. When I was hired I knew everything was based on senority. We senior flight attendants have been through our tough times .. 9-11 bankruptcy.. bad management.. ect .. now Covid .. I have two more years and I can retire … I cannot give half of my pay to someone else for an indefinite period of time . Sorry …how many people in other industries could give up half their pay ? Forever ? This is on management. Never do they save for a major disruption that happens every 10 years .. the airlines need to become smaller .. until the time they can expand again .. which no one knows when that will be.. it’s rough but that’s what it is ..
Two parts of unions that really rub the wrong way: 1) the seniority system. Junior members pay in for representation the same as senior members, yet aren’t ‘protected’ nearly the same. Since there’s no merit system to call on, the lay offs should be more equitable, take 1 from the bottom, 1 from the top, 1 from the middle of the seniority list. 2) the structure. Unions should not be ‘employing’ organizations for outrageously compensated leadership positions, as the corruption and back-scratching politics is ridiculous for an organization meant to improve quality of life for its members. Make the leadership volunteer-only positions and see exactly who is really out to work for the stated goals, and not just their own political or personal self-interest.
Unions are deplorable and need to go the way of Dinosaurs…extinction! I find it unconscionable that Unions get up in arms if Employers attempt to influence there employees against Unions. However, they “bully” the Employees into joining the Union. Specifically it is written in the contract that you have to join the Union (they word it as “being current with your Union dues”) the dues is taken out of your paycheck (like taxes etc), Or the Union will notify your employer and have you Terminated. If the Union is so great why do they need to strong arm the Employees??
What is not clearly mentioned, is that DL does not maintain minimum fly requirements for their active flight attendants. Can operate the schedule with 10,000, staff of 25,000, get 5,000 to take time off, or retire, and then drop schedule line values down fro 85 hours to 45 hours. No furlough, simply change your entire staff to part time employees, have them all scramble for additional time, all the while telling them how much they are loved by DL.. the 5e good thing DL does is pull the wool over their eyes to tell them they are the best treated FA in the country.
What explains how happy Delta flight attendants are? It can’t be Uncle Pennybags Bastian.
You’d be surprised at the number of Delta FAs who are less than in love with their employer, but still love their co-workers, passengers and the industry, but not being an insider, I don’t expect you to understand this dynamic.
Then I’d re-phrase my question and say are Delta FAs so polite and kind because they are afraid unlike the union-protected FAs at American and Untied who openly complain (sometimes bitterly) about their employer?
I think you’d also be surprised to know how many Delta FAs think they work for a great company and are extremely happy.
Fist of all your numbers are not accurate. We started with 25,000 flight attendants. About 4,000 took early outs and about another 8,000 took some type of leave package. That puts us to around 13,000 now. And the schedule value is not 45. The whole point of getting the 8,000 additional leaves was to keep the schedule value in the 72-75 hour range. And if you want more flying, you can get it. Just ask my friend who now has 130 hours because she worked hard to pick up.
I am a truck driver and a Teamster in Seattle, Washington – often in a union leadership position at my workplace and participate in organizing activities when I can. What I think you fail to take into account in your article is that when an industry is at least substantially unionized in part it has reverberations throughout out the entire industry. Not every local truck driver is unionized here in Seattle, but the ones who are set the labor standards for the rest. There is a notorious produce wholesaler here who has vowed to sell his company before ever unionizing. I thank him for hiring me out of school but I left because the wages were horrible and I got suspended for being parked in a parking lot for a half hour making a delivery and a car not paying attention hit my parked rig. The damage was so extensive they said they had no choice but to suspend me even though they ruled it not my fault. Anyways I moved on to union work, better pay, better benefits and a pension. Ran into an old coworker a couple years later and he had gotten an $8 pay raise. Why? Because with the prevailing wage being a union wage he couldn’t find drivers. He didn’t do it to be nice, he did it because unions forced him. Do a very few under performing people get a pass because of union contracts? Sure, but I argue if their performance is really subpar than an employer is not exercising their inherent management rights correctly. People shouldn’t be fired or denied a position because they aren’t well liked if their performance is good and yes it happens. And seniority is the bedrock of union rights. People who have never worked blue collar for any extended period of time don’t understand that. When you’re young you can do the crazy hours that require more energy, more strength. Putting in the time means you get to move on to easier things the closer you get to retirement – those people earned those rights. The airlines, even the unionized ones, had the same options as everyone. Volunteer from the top down, volunTOLD bottom up. Only difference is in non union if they don’t get enough volunteers they can pick and choose on any criteria management wants – think blondes stays, brunettes goes. The number of volunteers you needs depends on your business needs.
DL has a guarantee. One thing you all don’t understand is we don’t do full reserve, so everyone has a line and some have just 6 days a month of reserve mixed with trips. Now they get a guarantee schedule value each month and if the flight is canceled they still get paid for it or can opt to have a priority pickup. They can drop all their line or can pickup to add. Guarantee was created for full reserve , so that if they don’t fly they will still get paid. The schedule method at Delta gives more flexibility for all and is very beneficial to junior FA’s as they get to fly and have more stability.
Afa has failed many times to get on the property. They are out of money. Move over here comes IAM. IAMDELTA.NET
Delta has done genius level work in keeping most unions off the property, and at the same time having the best pay and best benefit package. What motivates this? The unions at UA, AA, SW, UPS etc. are the main drivers, but the legacy of Mr. Woolman in evenhanded treatment of the employees is an equally important driver for Delta’s Human Relations success. This has carried through multiple regime changes since Woolman retired 40 years ago.
The CEO of Delta has a contract the very specifically spells out his pay and benefits. He is also compensated handsomely if the board terminates his employment or if a merger occurs. It’s called a golden parachute.
The agreement he has with DL is binding.
Think about that for a moment. He’s compensated in salary alone at 946,000 annually plus millions more in options ( look it up). He wouldn’t dare work for DL without a contract. Yet DL wants its FA to trust the company.
You can drink the DL koolaid or be a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, your choice; there is no choice. You do both.
Most left after Oct. will be parttime, less benefits. The newly retired (not former NWA) will see the Delta retiree Social Security offset applied…not nice. They will deduct a large portion from retirement pay. If they file bankruptcy..all agreements will be off tables. It’s happened before.
@ Deedee & Carmala. You two are 100% correct. Matthew Klint hasn’t a clue what he is talking about. Compare a unionized NWA/DL unionized flight attendant retirement to a DL flight attendant. It’s huge! When DL looked at furloughs after 9-11, the flight attendants with language skills (Spanish) were protected. DL skipped over them along with some of the favorite employees by finding them special assignments thus laying off more senior flight attendants. As Carmala sated, flight attendants took pay cuts before any other employee group. This blended pay (also called “Finding A Better Way) reduced our pay while other employee groups did not have their pay reduced for months. DL has had the advantage of doing what they like when they like for years (and still do). Work rules changes on a whim. Pilots get positive space business class seats when deadheading on international flights because of negotiation. Flight attendants get coach. Pilots get double pay when picking up overtime (green slips). Flight attendants get nothing extra most of the time or four hours extra pay. If SWA can make it work, so can DL. SWA is a successful airline with happy employees as is DL. To choose a union or not? I’d choose a union all day everyday and twice on Sunday. If Police, Firefighters, Sports Teams and Senior Management can have a union/contract, why is it so bad for DL flight attendants? We won’t magically turn into AA flight attendants – it’s not in our DNA. Unions are not perfect but it’s better than not having one.
When the Payroll Support Program gets extended and no aviation workers industry wide face furloughs, will you write an article detailing how much work AFA, TWU, etc. put in to make that happen and save jobs? Or is the amount of money DL pays you to spew their anti union propaganda worth more?
If payroll support is extended at $25BN, I will bemoan the fact that U.S. taxpayers are coughing up hundreds of thousands of dollars PER WORKER to extend their jobs for six months. Have you done the math?
https://liveandletsfly.com/airline-bailout-myths/
And for the record, I’m not on the Delta payroll.
Aren’t Delta flight attendants, at least to a certain extent, free riding on top of the salaries and benefits that the unions at Southwest, United, and American have been able to negotiate?