WHO ARE THE REAL OUTSIDERS AND
WHO WILL SPEAK FOR US?

NEW BOARD NAMED

Without doubt one of the most frustrating aspects of this union campaign has been the recurring theme of those who accuse us of being outside meddlers attempting to thwart the long term financial goals of Delta Air Lines. Those of you who visit the blog regularly have read the comments from people who make these accusations about IAM being nothing more than a “big business” hungry for money; your money. The truth is, we are loyal Delta employees who want a fair voice in our future — a Delta future.

As Jerry Grinstein passes the baton to his successor, we should ask ourselves this question: Who are the real outsiders and who will speak for us after Jerry is gone? Most of the people I work with within the Delta Ramp Workers Organizing Committee have decades of experience within ACS, hundreds of combined years of knowledge and experience.

What about Jerry’s potential replacements and what about the new board? The three top candidates have less time at Delta than the average ramp worker. Although they talk a good game about the “old Delta Spirit” being rekindled, they weren’t even here to actually experience it. Ed Bastian has 8 years, Jim Whitehurst 5, and Mike Campbell…less than 2 years of Delta experience. Unlike Jerry, these three men had no problem accepting the enormous amounts of stock related rewards worth approximately 8 Million dollars each.

I am especially concerned about the position that Mike Campbell holds; Executive Vice-President, Human Resources and Labor Relations. Before holding a similar position at Continental Airlines, Mr. Campbell was a “nationally recognized expert in employment and labor matters”, in his bio, as reported by Delta. He was a founding partner in the law firm, Ford & Harrison LLP. This is a law firm that advises corporations in, as outlined by their own Firm Overview, “to successfully deal with…collective bargaining, or union organizing drives by helping to provide the necessary knowledge and insight to deal with these issues.”

He’s a union buster, an anti-labor lawyer, a guy who advises Corporations on how not to spend too much money on employees. He is now the head of our Human Resources dept. Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse.

The new Board was announced recently, and every single one of them is a corporate exec or ex-corporate exec, except one, who is a College President. There are simply no friendly labor voices on the board, not even pilot representation. Why should this concern us? We have no voice, no one to speak for us when things are good, or when hard times come again.

This team is all about profit, all about maximizing the value of stock for their shareholders, which is not necessarily a bad thing, when balance exists. We have no balance without representation. Jerry made sure that we received some relief but if we aren’t willing to stand up now by organizing and unionizing, we will forever lag behind the other union represented carriers.

Look at the disproportionate size of the “rewards” that are about to be given out, no wonder Mr. Grinstein wanted nothing to do with the money and gave it to charity. Why should the top execs be given 400 times more than the average worker? Mr. Grinstein’s salary was capped at approximately ten times the average worker, a sensible, equitable amount.

We have to guard against the Gordon Geko mentality from the movie “Wall Street”, when Geko famously said, “Greed is good.” The only way to do that is by having a voice at the table, to speak for ourselves. We need to stand up for the long-time workers of this company as well as the more junior employees. You and I will be here long after this current group of leaders cashes in their money and goes on to their next great conquest. Why not give ourselves representation, we have earned and we deserve a voice in our future.

It’s time to unionize through IAM!