THE CANCER BEGINS AND WILL SPREAD

DELTA LAUNCHES NEW COMPANY FOR GROUND HANDLING
WITH NO VOICE OUR JOBS WILL FADE AWAY!

The economy is in turmoil and companies around the world are scrambling to survive. Money is tight and lending has ground to a halt. Workers are scared and Delta Air Lines has announced a remedy for their financial problems.

Goodbye all of us if we don’t unite and organize into a union! Delta has formulated a new subsidiary called Regional Handling Services; RHS. Why should we all be worried? Because this is precisely what corporations do when they want to back-door their own benefited and fairly compensated employees. They start a new company just in case the old workers don’t want to go along with drastic wage cuts and a curtailment of all benefits.

Let me tell you what I think Delta is up to. Normally I speak in 3rd person, but today, I speak for myself. I can see the evilness of Delta’s plans. The economy is in a tailspin; jobs are going out the door. Passengers are cancelling their reservations and loads are down.

Our management team is spinning in their bunker of planning and can’t resolve the issues without drastic cuts in employment. They know about their past promises to all of us and they can’t reconcile what they have said to what must be done. So, here comes their hastily formulated alternative. A newly constituted wholly owned subsidiary called RHS.

I know what they are going to do next; they are going to tell all Delta part-timers that the jobs are gone and they have to accept an alternative. The alternative is to give up their benefits and take a ready reserve line with Delta. They will say it is the only way.

Delta will dump millions of dollars of financial obligation by stripping our part-timers away from their benefit safety net. They will do this soon because they can in an uncertain economic calamity. Our employees who have little seniority will have no choice. They will go along and will lose everything they have built up since they joined Delta.

Our unionized Northwest colleagues will fare better in this process because of their IAM representation. Delta cannot touch them in the same manner until their contracts expire in late 2010. This is the genius of having a contract.

I have much empathy for our RR employees at Delta; they are being used to work long hours for hardly any compensation. We stand by them and their dedication to our customers and our integrity. This new replacement (RHS) for DGS that has been recently formulated is a recipe for termination of all of our jobs without a union contract and friends standing with us in these perilous times. Listen and heed our words.

Delta will end our careers in a heartbeat if it means more bonuses for them. Without all of us standing firm against this economic pillaging of our livelihoods, we will be left to rot and die on the vine.

Remember this, my fellow Delta employees, you are vulnerable to whatever Delta wants to do to you; you have no protection. Sign the union authorization cards now and be quick about it. Your management team is counting on you to trust them by standing silent and not protecting yourselves.

Friday the 13th is no joke!