COUP D’DELTA

WOLVES IN SHEEPS CLOTHING TAKE OVER DELTA
PROMISES OF FUTURE REWARDS DON’T FILL POCKETS


As the last remnants of the old Delta guard are being shown the door; our new management team is busy measuring and hanging the fresh curtains in the executive suites and laying the plush carpet where their mahogany desks will sit. The old Northwest team that tried so mightily to strip the union members of their jobs and dignity at Northwest has moved on to more fertile non-represented grounds at Delta and have found seemingly willing victims surprisingly unaware of their plans and past history.

The underling serfs who do Richard Anderson’s biding have spread themselves across Delta’s system in an effort to reassure employees that all is ok and that Richard assures all that no ‘front-line’ employees will be laid off at the newly combined Delta Air Lines.

Is this the same Richard Anderson that just one short year ago when he was named CEO of Delta emphatically stated without equivocation that there was absolutely no substance to the talk about merger rumors? He stated. ”We have no plans to merge at this time.” He went on to say that Delta had a great standalone strategy and to not listen to the hyperbole concerning merger talk.

Richard Anderson, by trade is a lawyer, a litigator with great skills; a wordsmith who carefully chooses what words he uses. He doesn’t lie overtly; he just doesn’t always tell the whole truth, completely. He parses his statements so that he can pretty much do as he pleases without future ramifications.

When he tells us or has his surrogates tell us that industry standard pay is coming in 2010, what does that really mean? If the Delta management team gets their way, they will defeat the unions at Northwest and effectively destroy a collective bargaining unit that helps ensure wages and benefits. What will be the standard in 2010 with less union voices to carry our fight?

The truth is that Delta management’s goal is to weaken the industry standard pay and lower it. The promise will be fulfilled; we will receive less pay and benefits because there will be no one left to advocate on our behalf and the standard will be forever debased and deflated.

The IAM is a proven leader and advocate in the fight to maintain and improve our wages, benefits and standing; they protect jobs and restore dignity. Let’s give them a chance by signing our authorization cards today; don’t let the sheep at the door fool you, he’s got a shaggy tail and smells of canine.