Delta faces another union vote

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/05/30/deltalabor0530.html

Flight attendants prepare for third time.Northwest’s 7,000 are represented while 14,000 with Delta aren’t.
By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Delta Air Lines flight attendants, who’ve already voted twice in the past seven years on whether to unionize, are gearing up for Round 3.

The Association of Flight Attendants lost its first two votes at Delta, but the carrier’s merger with Northwest Airlines has set the stage for another vote —- and raised the stakes considerably for both sides.

The AFA represents Northwest’s 7,000 attendants, while Delta’s 14,000 are nonunion. Labor law entitles the AFA to seek a representation election among the combined group. Similar elections could also be coming among Delta’s ground workers.

A win for the AFA would mean unionizing the flight attendants at an airline that has for decades managed to resist organizing attempts and is now the world’s largest carrier. That could gain the union influence and affect negotiations of labor contracts across the airline industry.

“Anytime we go to the bargaining table, we hear, ‘You know, we can’t pay more than our competitors,’” said Patricia Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. She thinks unionizing flight attendants would be a “cultural shift” at Delta, where pilots are the only large worker group that’s unionized.

Losing would cost the union its Northwest members and their dues.

FULL story and audio at link.