WELCOME TO THE NEW ‘ANDERSONVILLE'...

WHERE STARVING IS NOT JUST A 19TH CENTURY REALITY
‘CULTURE’ AND LOYALTY TRUMP PAY AND BENEFITS


Hasn’t anyone else noticed that a battle for survival is taking place at Delta Air Lines? There are outsiders with slick slogans and lofty promises that are winning the hearts and minds of loyal, long time Delta employees!

If you are from the south and living in Atlanta, working for Delta, you should be more than a little alarmed that the airline you grew up with has been usurped, co-opted and duped by strangers who talk nice and have memorized all the key, catch phrases.

“You are our greatest asset” and “there will be no lay-offs of front-line employees” and “We’ll get you to industry standards sometime in the future” …sound familiar? They mouth the words, they make the promises, but they fight putting them in a binding contract.

It just seems that all any new Delta executive has to do is act like he understands and appreciates the unique ‘culture’ that is Delta, then he or she is free to strip us of our pay, benefits, future and dignity. Why are we so gullible to this dribble! Why are we so susceptible to nice talk and fake ‘southern charm?’

It seems obvious that a second ‘civil war’ has almost already been won by carpetbaggers without them having to fire a single shot!

Our management team is primarily ex-Northwest — so is our board of directors. Our computer systems and freight handling philosophy will soon be switched over to Northwest technology and our agents will eventually start training in new procedures. Even the time clocks are the same as Northwest’s system. Actually the only thing that they don’t want to keep is the unions that provided job protection and superior benefits that sustain and enhance life.

Apparently all one has to do is call the airline Delta and keep the paint livery and widget on the airplanes and that’s enough to satisfy Delta’s Atlanta hub. We’ve got to be smarter than that!

Excuse the rest of us for noticing, but wasn’t that what U.S. Air was attempting to do?

Keep the Delta name and change everything else? Ask any Northwest employee who has the protection of a union what he or she thinks of Richard Anderson and Northwest management. Their management people (now leading Delta) attempted to take all the jobs they could; both above and below wing and the IAM stepped in and helped save thousands of jobs.

Who’s going to save our jobs after we swallow these lies about our future and industry standard pay? We will be gone as soon as the Northwest contracts expire, without the protection of a bargaining unit and the IAM. At the very least, our pay will be drastically reduced and the rest of our benefits taken away. We must all come to terms with Mr. Anderson’s past in order to understand the depth of his coldness and determination to win and enrich himself and his management ilk.

Our future is in jeopardy and our time is running short to get a handle on what can be done to prevent the inevitable destruction of our jobs and lifestyle. We have already lost much…can we afford to risk the loss of it all?

Fighting back is also a southern tradition — just like being ‘charming,’ ‘cultured’ and ‘hospitable’. Come on Atlanta show us your spine; get your back up and smell what’s being shoveled in your direction. It’s time to breathe refreshing air again! It’s time for the IAM.