SLIP-SLIDING AWAY

YOUTHFUL EMPLOYEES FACE FINANCIAL RUIN
MANAGEMENT PROSPERS WHILE PROMISES GO UNFULFILLED


We all have fond memories of our days gone by. The promise of youth, the anticipation of a life not yet fully experienced. The goals, desires and the unknown we faced as we began our great adventure on planet earth.

Some of us ended up at Delta because that was our primary goal, others stopped here temporarily as a sojourn during the journey forward. There were those that settled here because their primary goals went unfulfilled.

Over the past year during our union campaign drive, the one recurring theme has been the indifference of some. Most people who have been here for any length of time have an opinion one way or another about unionizing, except for the younger employees. They don’t want to talk about it. Many of them have expressed an almost serine, quiet attitude of surprise that an organization effort is even underway or that unions still exist.

There are some exceptions, of course, but for the most part our younger employees have blindly, almost apologetically accepted their financial fate. There seems to be no fight in them. It’s a curious phenomenon.

Their generation is projected to be the first generation in American history that will be worse off financially than their parent’s. How did this happen and can anything be done about it?

I remember putting myself through college when I was their age. I had a part-time union job and made a decent living. As a matter of fact, my beginning wage in 1975 was more than Delta pays in beginning wages on the ramp in 2007, and these were comparable jobs. Isn’t that astounding-- and yet why do we accept, as middle class working people, this kind of treatment?

Our wages have stagnated over the decades as unions have declined in stature while executive wages have sky-rocketed. This current generation which is facing financial ruin because of poor wages, seems to acquiesce in the presence of executive power.

Offer them a free trip to ATL, all expenses paid; fill them full of cult-like propaganda about the inevitability of them never making competitive wages because of ‘financial realities’ and they buy into it. Why?

Beats the hell out of me!

Let me make you aware of the facts, my young friends. Other airlines with union representation are doing quite well, both for their employees and their bottom line. Southwest Airlines tops out at $24 an hour on the ramp, they are nearly 100% union and they have very little corporate debt. American Airlines and United Airlines, both represented by unions are making over $2 an hour more than Delta’s ramp workers. U.S. Airways has announced wage increases for IAM represented ramp agents ranging between 3% to over 40%.

Your quiet acceptance of your situation here only feeds the corporate greedy robber barons that make decisions about your future. Your silence has made it possible for them to make millions in bonuses and equity payouts. You are complicit in your own financial demise. You are donating money to the already rich and have become their ‘welfare program’. They are laughing at you and your naiveté, the only question is…are you going to let them get away with it?

There are already too many people taking a piece of you; unscrupulous banks, sub-prime lenders, college loan scams, 30% credit cards. Don’t let Delta management get rich off of your sweat equity, begin to fight back by signing a union A-card and join what’s left of the middle class. This fight can and will be won and you will thank yourselves when you step into it and take action.





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