Delta Management Headlines Our AFA Campaign

AFA is at the top of Delta's Rumor Has It propaganda. Hot topics are usually the headline item, so it seems our organizing drive is the hot topic at Delta. One of the reasons companies don't want a union is that they don't want to be held accountable for promises to employees. They don't want you to have a legally binding contract when they can just create a handbook that can be changed at any time.

Maximum Scheduled Hours

Now they seem to be veering even from their own standards about where the work rules reside. Not only can anything change any time, now it seems Flight Attendants have to guess where to look for the "rules" by which our schedules are defined. In this latest "Rumor Has It" communication, Delta management explained there are "work rules" outside of the Flight Attendant Work Rules (FAWR) book and Program & Policies Handbook (PPH). Management's defensive position on scheduled flight hours couldn't be explained with the FAWR or PPH, so instead they borrowed language from a PBS reference guide to try to explain themselves.

The PBS Reference Guide is where you go to learn how to use PBS and enter your bids. It's not a place for any official language regarding our work rules. This just shows that management can use whatever they like and now call it a work rule, without even putting it in the actual FAWR.

The PBS schedule build maximum is not a rule or even mentioned in our FAWR. It can be changed or completely removed anytime just like anything else in PBS. Just like they did with D-40 HDNB boarding in ATL or biweekly pay. Management can unilaterally change anything, at any time. That's why we need our union and a legally binding contract.

Form 41 Data

Management said “there is little guidance from the DOT on the specifics of what each airline is supposed to report in Form 41, and as a result each airline decides how it is going to report its data.” That’s not true. Form 41 guidelines for filing are very specific and by law Delta and all other large Part 121 airlines have to certify that the information they provide to DOT is accurate.

It is the same data that was used as the basis for the Payroll Support Program (PSP) funding from the U.S. Treasury under COVID Relief which Delta supported and received over $11 Billion in aid since April 2020. (Delta is the only carrier estimated to have spent less on labor costs than it received in PSP funds.) If it was accurate and useful for PSP employee expense calculations, it should be okay to assess comparative employee salaries.

Word is spreading fast and that's why AFA is again headlining management communications. Get involved. If there's things you like about this job — build our union to lock it in. If there's things you want to change about this job — build our union to work together to negotiate improvements in a legally binding contract. No one on Delta's executive team would ever work at Delta without a contract. They shouldn’t expect us to either.

Expect management to continue to feed half-truths and misinformation to try to confuse and dissuade us from building our union. We will continue to address these at The Whole Truth.