WIT, HUMOR AND KNOWLEDGE; A WINNING COMBINATION

UNION CAMPAIGN TO ENTER DIFFICULT PHASE
EMPLOYEES URGED TO REMAIN PROFESSIONAL AND CALM

This is the season that can bring out the best in people as well as the worst. A National political campaign is a serious business and a lot is riding on the outcome of the general election. The economic health of our nation is in peril and Americans are being asked to make decisions all over the nation that will have profound effects on all of our futures and pocketbooks.

No wonder some have found anger, character assassination, half truths and out and out lies preferable to debating the issues at hand. We must all sift through the muck to determine the truth or at least the merit to every argument and issue both economically and politically.

Anger and hostility can sometimes enter into conversations concerning national decisions and shouting or name calling becomes the center and focus of debate rather than the pertinent matters at hand. This is by design...to keep us as voters distracted from the issues we SHOULD be voting on. We wish it wasn’t so but sadly that’s the direction many have chosen to follow.

Our union campaign will follow a similar path, and designed confrontations are sure to present themselves as we go forward in our efforts to unionize through the IAM. Many Northwest employees have experienced challenging union campaigns before. They prevailed in the threat to eliminate their workplace voices in the past. What is about to take place is designed to challenge them and us. There will be an effort to have us lose our patience and demeanor only to turn against each other.

One tactic that has been used in the past is to gather employees around and present the company’s point of view concerning why we all should not join a union. Many of the ‘facts’ that will be presented are distortions, half-truths and bald faced lies carefully crafted to anger and foment employees into reactions that can and will cause disciplinary action to occur.

We urge all employees at both airlines to arm themselves with accurate information; to practice calming responses to the methods that will be implemented. We cannot allow newer employees to see a false side of the union that the company wants them to think is real. The more professional we maintain ourselves, the more support we will win over in the long run.

Charm and calming, knowledgeable responses to the hostility and vitriol that is coming our way is a winning formula for success and will ensure ultimate victory. We all have our moments when our blood boils up after we hear things that are not true but we must refrain from responding in kind. All of us have memories or moments in our past when we met hostility and anger with similar responses only to have the debate devolve into incomprehensible babble.

This is what Delta wants from us and we simply are not going to bite. We must arm all of ourselves with the facts; answer anger with serenity, lies with the truth and name calling with wit and accurate, well placed anecdotes.

Winning over people is not accomplished by shouting or deception; not with angry responses or belittling others. It is done with truth and promises that are followed through on and are kept. Something that Delta has hardly ever done and probably has no intention of doing.

We will win our place at the table with dignity and respect.