Flight attendants union says summer storms drove record Delta signatures

“That was due to people realizing that during the (disruptions), they didn’t have the protections that other airline flight attendants had,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“We had flight attendants who didn’t get hotels, they’re sleeping on floors in the lounges, on airplanes and are up longer than we should be: 18, 20, 24 hours.”

Those flight attendants came to organizers to say, “Now is the time,” Lane said.

The news comes as Delta’s two unions, the Air Line Pilots Association and Professional Airline Flight Control Association, last month called out the company in an unprecedented letter for failing to be prepared for “predictable weather events.”

AFA must gather signatures from at least 50% of the Atlanta-based carrier’s sprawling work group to trigger a vote, and signatures must be renewed every year. The AFA has held three failed votes at Delta in 24 years.

In a statement, Delta said its culture “is firmly rooted in taking care of its employees who, over the past two decades, have repeatedly chosen to reject AFA representation.”

The carrier said it respects its employees right to decide whether a union is “right for them and we encourage honest, transparent, and respectful dialogue, but believe our direct relationship has proven to be stronger, faster, and more effective in driving improvements than AFA representation.”

Lane declined to comment on just how close the effort is to calling for a vote, but said “the energy is building.”

Flight attendants are Delta’s largest work group. Just 20% of Delta’s workforce is organized compared to more than 80% among its competitors.

In their letter, ALPA and PAFCA leadership wrote that antiquated IT systems and tight staffing are leaving employees in “unacceptably difficult situations with significant operational pressure and inconsistent support.”

Delta CEO Ed Bastian in July said the airline is fully staffed and this summer has “more front-line staff than ever relative to the operation.”

ALPA and PAFCA also spoke out on behalf of their “flight attendant co-workers,” who, they said, “do not have the protections of a contract or support from a union and are the most vulnerable to operational pressure.”

Delta flight attendants “especially feel the lack of a union contract during operational meltdowns and typical summer flying,” said Sara Nelson, AFA’s president, in a written statement.

A lack of “basic pay and reassignment protections...is a sure fire motivator for Delta Flight Attendants to want a union without delay.”

Delta flight attendants sometimes feel “isolated” as the only nonunionized major airline flight attendants, and isolated from their pilot colleagues, Lane said.

If they had contract protections like pilots, Lane said, it would be easier to get guaranteed seats on flights to get them to work and easier hotel accommodation requests.

The crew tracking system, she said, makes it “a little bit harder for us to have those accommodations,” she said.

“We have to get permission and talk to certain people. It could be hours before we’re able to get a hotel to where we can have adequate rest to work the following flight.”

Delta told the AJC that during recent weather disruptions it has provided commuting seats on planes “in certain circumstances,” enabled hotel “self-booking” through a company tool that offers “pay and transportation through Uber codes,” as well as other “new tools to prioritize support/assistance.”

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO union federation, recently visited Atlanta to support two Delta unionizing efforts: AFA’s and an effort by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) to organize ramp and cargo workers.

Tiffany Lopez is not a Delta employee but has been working to unionize Delta ramp workers in Detroit. She confirmed the summer’s weather disruption has had a galvanizing impact on their unionizing efforts, too.

“The biggest organizing fight going in the country right now is the fight to organize Delta,” Shuler said.

A contract offers protections to those who want to speak out about things like the disruptions, she argued.

“People are often afraid to raise their voices when they see something...because then you’re afraid you’re going to get disciplined,” Shuler said.