Delta Ramp Workers Organizing Committee

Saturday, April 07, 2007

THIS IS A CAMPAIGN OF IDEAS
A CAMPAIGN OF CHOICE
NOT CONFRONTATION


In the coming months Delta ramp personnel will be afforded the opportunity to make a monumental choice about the direction our future will take at Delta Air Lines. Many of our leaders and direct supervisors want us to believe that this is a decision that has to be made about choosing between outsiders and the Company.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This is not a choice between “ them” or “us”; it is a decision about us and what type of financial future we will enjoy as Delta Air Lines goes forward.

The Delta Ramp Workers Organizing Committee is waging a campaign of ideas not confrontation; a campaign about the Delta we are today versus the Delta we might become. We have different visions and aspirations as to how that might happen than our corporate leaders. Ultimately, we share the same goals; a healthy, strong, vibrant and competitive Delta Air Lines. The difference is our vision includes a company that not only provides first class service for its customers, but an airline that delivers a guaranteed financially sustainable package to its employees.

We strongly believe that we can’t get to that point by marginalizing a significant portion of the people who work here. We think that a positive approach by our management that recognizes the voice of its employees is a better avenue to achieve consensus goals. By tapping the vast reservoir of knowledge and experience that exists within our ranks, positive results inevitably will prevail.

It is better that we leave the consultants and bean counters on the shelf. We simply don’t believe that you can outsource your way to success and prominence any more than you can borrow your way to profitability.

One must look at how Delta actually got financially healthy. We balanced the books by making a significant percentage of our employees work for less. Very few new ideas went into this monetary “ turnaround”; the slate was wiped clean through walking away from our debt (using bankruptcy laws) and saddling us non-contract employees with the financial burden of making much less than others who had a voice in the process.

Look at the bad decisions of the past. The Pacific, Asian hub was abandoned. Invaluable assets (long term employees) were outsourced. The fleet mixture was complicated, thus increasing the associated costs of pre-positioned parts and perpetual pilot training expenditures. The name of Air Cargo was changed to Air Logistics, confusing customers, vendors, shippers and most curiously, employees.

Our leadership gave away the “farm” to Delta Connection carriers by not only giving them our passengers and routes but giving them sweetheart completion contracts that virtually guaranteed them a profit while we paid for all of their mistakes, misconnected bags, and passengers.

What can a union do to change all these and other problems? Voting in a union will help stabilize the workforce. It will challenge the management to be more professional and proficient in their decision making processes. They will be contractually required to deal with us in an open and above-board manner. It will give us a voice that must be recognized.

We will grow stronger when we have open discussion and healthy debate over ideas. We welcome dissenting comments and can only be enriched by dialogue. The truth is our choice is between the Delta that now exists and a Delta that can be much better. A Delta of the past or a Delta of the future; a Delta future that includes its employees. Yes, a Delta future that not only provides a quality experience for its customers but a future that enriches and values its employees.