THE LAST COMPETENT AGENT

PROFESSIONALISM REQUIRES LONG SERVING EMPLOYEES
DELTA MOVES AGAINST ITS OWN VIABILITY AND FUTURE

Some years ago Delta began a process designed to de-emphasize competency and efficiency. Training in various departments was made simpler, easier if you will. Requirements to, let’s say, become an ALA or agent in charge of loading and unloading aircraft was simplified. No longer did agents need to understand manual weight and balance or dripping of in-op fuel gauges should and aircraft have fuel tanks that had inoperable measuring devices or computers screens that had gone blank or shut down.

Delta wanted to be able to have their ‘professionals’ less burdened with knowledge. Even the process within the computer weight and balance systems moved much of the responsibility from agents at plane side to ‘operational’ agents away from the aircraft.

Everything began to be dummied down for the intellectually inferior. Why?

Well, many of us have a theory about what our future holds. Having less people understanding the complete picture of what it takes to turn an aircraft ultimately requires fewer competent people at planeside. The less everyone needs to know, the easier it is to replace employees who, to the company, seem to have become a financial burden.

Think about it. Finding a way to have the kiosk check in a passenger or the computer determine the quickest and most efficient way to load an aircraft takes the guess work and the intelligence out of the process. We have a management team that is looking for a way to have an eternal revolving door employee workforce; People who need minimal training and can be cheaply replaced over night.

Delta is close to successfully obtaining their goal of cheap, easily replaceable working men and women and we stand by and allow them to get away with it by not organizing quickly enough.

They will finish us soon enough should we not vote in union representation but don’t kid yourselves; their process of replacing us either way began years ago. Right now less and less people are performing essential duties that no one else seems capable of doing.

In some cities there are fewer and fewer employees that multi-task each morning doing everyone else’s job because the skills have gone out the door. Supervisors are relying more and more on an ever dwindling resource that is disappearing and retiring at record levels. Some cities have reached ‘critical mass’ and the tipping point is fast approaching where learned knowledge essential to our stability and viability will be forever lost.

We call upon all Delta experts to realize the danger this airline faces with an ever increasing incompetent middle management and ask them to maintain your present positions until we can win this union campaign.

We will one day again arise and become the airline we once were with the help of our competent Northwest colleagues and ask all professionals to hang in there and await the coming union victory.