THE SHELL GAME

NOW YOU SEE IT; NOW YOU DON’T!
DELTA IS UP TO THEIR OLD TRICKS

Ah! The art of the promise! Promises are like a guy who plays the field. You know the type; that sweet talker who tells every girl that comes along she is the ‘only’ one for him. Every one knows how that generally turns out.

My Delta friends, we are dealing with some very talented orators, gifted in the art fooling eager and hungry employees who are hurting for monetary help and improved benefits. They will promise you anything if you just buy into their talk about our magnificent future; our Family and our “culture”, whatever that entails!

We’ve all seen the con-artists who have the three half-shelled walnuts with a pea under one of them. All you have to do to get rich is guess which shell the pea is under. You always lose because of the slight of hand and the art of deception.

Delta has honed this skill over the years to one that is admired in board rooms and private clubs for the ultra-rich who run this country. Let me describe what I know about how good they are at it. In 2008 when we finished our merger and received equity shares we were told that 15% or 15 shares of the total value of the new carrier would be divided up among the employees and management. This would be determined by the price of the stock.

The 11000 combined pilot group got an agreement through their negotiators to receive 5.88 of the 15 shares; the management team (700) would receive 3.5 shares with another 1.62 shares to be given to future new managers and the rest of us or about 60,000 employees would divide up the rest of the shares which if you can do the math came out to only 4 shares.

You see, the ones who were under contract (pilots) and some of the top managers took over two thirds of the money.

In 2007, the last time we got profit sharing the division of monies was approximately along the very same breakdown. Yep! The rich getting richer and those under contract receiving exactly what they knew they would get under their iron-clad agreement. We got the measly leftovers.

Each and every raise we as non-contracted Delta employees have gotten over the last 20 years has eventually been taken away. Even worse, when we did get a temporary raise we would always have some other benefit diminished; (55 sick days a year down to 7, frozen pension, cash balanced pension disappearing, less holidays, HMO’s taken away, increase in prescription costs, insurance deductible and out of pocket increases, loss of over time pay when using ppt days, two weeks of vacation taken away, limits on OJI time, etc.)

This is how it works at Delta; every penny put in the left pocket will be removed from the right pocket simultaneously. That’s what our past has been without a union negotiating for us. Without a contract we really have nothing but flowery promises and temporary improvements that aren’t real when you look at Delta’s past history and talented “walnut” manipulators.

Seeing the truth for some is difficult especially if you have blinders on. Those of you who have been here for awhile know our past and need to let our new hires and Ready Reserves understand what their life at Delta will be like without a contract. It’s not a future your family can live with.