Delta Launches Anti-Union Media Campaign

Over the weekend a Delta anti-union video began circulating across internet forums and Facebook. 
 
The video features executives explaining to workers why joining a union is a bad idea. The emphasis is on the possibility that having a union could disrupt what the executives describe as their “direct relationship” with workers. 
 
The alarmist tone argues that the organizing drive is, “Attempting to disrupt the very culture that makes Delta Different.”  The video also argues that a union drive would negatively impact, “our [Delta’s] direct relationship with you forever.”  
 
 
The video also announced the launch of an accompanying website:
 
 
Delta is responding to ongoing attempts by International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) to form a union among, “below wing and cargo employees.”
 
IAM had their own response to the provocative video. It is in its entirety below:
 

“Delta recently published a new anti-union video. In it, Delta management attempts to discourage us from signing union authorization cards, claiming that our IAM campaign is originating outside and apart from us and that it’s risky to sign cards and form a union.

Interestingly, when the video was posted on YouTube, commenting was allowed. But when Delta bosses didn’t like our reaction, they shut down our ability to comment. So much for the ‘direct relationship.’ Delta didn’t like our feedback, so it chose to silence us.

It’s parallel to our IAM drive itself. Delta wants to hold all the cards and keep us without a voice when it doesn’t align with their narrative. We can’t talk back to messages piped into a break room on deltavision. We can’t have an open debate with articles that pop up on the DeltaNet homepage. When we form a union, we take back control and have the ability to comment and voice our opinion, even, and most importantly, when it opposes Delta’s view.

When we sign a card to request a union election, we are asking for the right to vote, the right to form a union and gain a voice at work. We risk nothing!

In the video, Delta says that a union would ruin the so-called ‘direct relationship.’ It would be more truthful for Delta bosses to say what we know they mean by the direct relationship; ‘we talk’ and ‘you listen.’

Our IAM drive comes straight from us and what we face everyday on the job.

Delta execs, aren’t you interested in what we have to say? Don’t you want to hear about our need for more staffing, a fair job bid, an end to favoritism, a pension for retirement? How about equal treatment, benefits, and a career pay scale for Ready Reserves, more full time upgrades and a work schedule we can depend on?

Delta bosses like to say we have an ‘open door policy.’ Until management allows for a two-way debate about OUR issues, all we have is an open door fallacy.

The time is now for all to come together and sign a card. Request your a-card today.”  

IAM encourages the public to look at  DALRamp.org for more information.

Filiberto Nolasco Gomez is a former union organizer and former editor of Minneapolis based Workday Minnesota, the first online labor news publication in the state. Filiberto focused on longform and investigative journalism. He has covered topics including prison labor, labor trafficking, and union fights in the Twin Cities.

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