Meet Rick Marcus

Rick Marcus was a safety instructor. He returned $4,000 to a passenger who was frantic because of their loss. He was impeccably honest. He was a member of the Continuous Improvement Team, had perfect attendance in 2007 and 2008, had commendations for making sure bags were not misconnected, had 13 years with Delta Air Lines in MCO. Rick Marcus was a career airline worker who made sure Delta was consistently one of the preferred airlines in the world.

Until April 15, 2009. On that day Rick was suspended and began what he describes as a slow descent into Hell. A coworker came up to him while his crew was onloading an international flight. The other worker’s manner was threatening, so Rick put his hands up to defend himself. Rick still isn’t sure why his coworker approached him this way.

What he is sure of is that he was called into his manager’s office and told he would be suspended for a day or two. After two days he called to make sure he was to report the following day. “You are suspended until further notice”, he was told. He was given a number for a Human Resources Representative in Atlanta. Between April 21 and May 5 he called 6 times. Finally, on May 6 the HR Rep. told him his case was going before the Workplace Violence Committee. He was also told it would be 4 to 6 weeks for a decision to be rendered with 6 weeks being the max. 7 and then 8 weeks passed and still no word.

Rick had no paycheck, no unemployment, no response. Finally, June 12 brought an email from HR saying he would have a decision shortly. He was called into the station that day by the acting station manager and told he could resign or be fired. He chose to appeal and was told it would be 6 to 8 weeks before any decision would be made, making the Delta process become 16 weeks of waiting and wondering with no support.

In the meantime, he filed for unemployment. The judge found the discharge to be unjustified and Delta appealed that decision and then failed to appear at hearing. Delta HR finally called him in September to say they thought his termination was justified. He remains unemployed in a bad economy. He has still not received a written termination notice.

We talked to a half dozen of his coworkers to make sure his story had the ring of truth. It all added up. Rick’s only flaw at work, according to those who worked with him every day, was that he got impatient with those who would not pull their weight.

After investigating, we believe Rick. But even if we didn’t, we know Rick didn’t get some things that he would have had he been a member of the IAM. He would have had the right to “due process”. He would have had the right to 3 different hearings with union and company reps. He would have had the right to arbitration where his case would have been heard by a neutral third party. Time limits for decisions would have been defined by a union contract.

Rick was never a big union man. He is now.