News

Hello AFT, we are Delta AFA!

18 Jul, 2026

Hello AFT, we are Delta AFA!

Our Delta AFA campaign is made up of rank-and-file Flight Attendant leaders from across the country. Together, we are organizing to secure our union with AFA, the Flight Attendant union.

Under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), more than 50% of Delta Flight Attendants must sign a physical authorization card, which is only valid for one year, before we can petition the National Mediation Board (NMB) for a vote. With over 30,000 Flight Attendants, we need to collect cards from over 15,000 of our colleagues just to get to a vote.

How You Can Help!

SUPPORTER BUTTON: As you prepare to leave DC or any time you fly Delta, greet Delta Flight Attendants and tell them you support our organizing efforts. Wear your Delta AFA Supporter button or sticker every time you fly. You can get more supplies by filling out our Supporter Form.
Do you know a Delta Flight Attendant? Commit to having that one on one conversation to get their card signed and get them involved.
Put Delta on everyone’s minds. Every time you talk about big organizing campaigns like Starbucks and Amazon, say Delta Air Lines too!
Donate to Union Now to support rank + file organizing and democracy in the workplace
Encourage your locals to join our Delta campaign briefings on zoom for the locals in Delta bases.
Get ready to sign onto a call for Delta management to follow our Fair Election Principles. Just like our U.S. elections, workers should be able to vote for their union without fear and intimidation.

Spread Your Support on Social Media

Remember to post a selfie with your Delta AFA Supporter button & tag us!

Delta Flight Attendants have the right to organize without interference or intimidation from management. I’m proud to support @DeltaAFA Flight Attendants as they organize to form their union & I urge Delta management to remain neutral. Union busting won’t fly!
I’m proud to stand in solidarity with @DeltaAFA Flight Attendants as they organize to form their union. Delta Flight Attendants, we’ve got your back!
.@DeltaAFA Flight Attendants are done with management interfering with their legal right to organize. That’s why I urge Delta management to stand up for freedom and remain neutral in Flight Attendants’ unionization effort. Union busting won’t fly.

TAG US

X: @DeltaAFA

Bluesky: @afadelta.bsky.social

Instagram: @afadelta

More Background

Recently 172 members of Congress sent a letter to Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian addressing interference with union organizing and urging the company to adopt a neutrality agreement. The Railway Labor Act is clear that management has no role in workers’ rights to choose a representative, and yet the act does not provide the National Mediation Board with an enforcement process during an organizing drive. In 2020 as COVID shut down the country the airline industry was in trouble. Instead of working with other airlines and airline unions to get payroll grants to keep workers in our jobs and connected to our healthcare, Delta management spent all of its political power on stripping from the CARES Act the one sentence that would have required them to follow the Railway Labor Act and stop interfering with their employees’ right to choose a union in order to get federal funds to keep the airline flying. They cared more about keeping the union out than saving the airline!

Delta management has long engaged in union-busting tactics and persistent interference with workers’ rights to seek union representation. Under the RLA there are little to no measures that hold management accountable to the law.

Still, Delta Flight Attendants are closer than ever to qualifying for their union election. As the last major carrier without a union for Flight Attendants, the timing couldn’t be more important. Last year Delta’s profits were more than the rest of the airline industry combined. It is way past time for Delta Flight Attendants to have the right to negotiate for their fair share of the profits they help create and have a standing at their airline in all safety and workplace issues that also affect the traveling public.

Under the RLA there are little to no measures that hold management accountable to the law. Delta Flight Attendants need to know lawmakers are doing everything possible to back up our rights under the law.

Delta has led the industry with nearly double the profits of any other airline in recent years. Delta keeps the hourly wage scale at or just above the top of their direct competitors - United and American. But an MIT study for Flight Attendant total compensation – including wages, benefits, and profit sharing – shows that on average Delta Flight Attendants make far less than United and American Flight Attendants. And on the backs of non-union workers Delta made more in 2025 than the entire industry put together. Passengers suffer when we don’t have a union.

The South and our whole country suffers when Delta uses propaganda like “we know how to take care of you better than you do yourselves.” As President Randi Weingarten describes in her phenomenal book that’s the kind of propaganda that leads to fascism and denies the tools our teachers gave us to use critical thinking to discern the truth and band together to ensure corporations can’t run away with our money and our time - or treat our safety and health like an other line item rather than fundamental to our workplace and the safety and security of the public.

Just talking about gaining our Flight Attendant union is already making positive change at Delta and we can work together to make the most out of this now. Let's lift up our profession with Flight Attendants across America and throughout the world. We are Stronger Together, Better Together.