Delta Air Lines Flight Attendants

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November 22, 2011

It’s Your Career. You Decide.

Dear Delta Flight Attendants,

The recent NMB ruling was devastating as it threw out 60 years of contract bargaining and ignored the voices of nearly ten thousand Delta Flight Attendants who stood up to vote for AFA in the face of serious management interference. This is a setback in your effort to gain a voice in the workplace, but it cannot break the ties that unite us. We count all Delta Flight Attendants as our colleagues in a tumultuous industry, and we value the friendships we have built with so many of you.

Working together, we have accomplished a lot over the past 15 years. And together we can do much better. AFA has been there for Delta Flight Attendants since Day One, supporting your quest for a voice at work. But it is the Delta Flight Attendants yourselves who, through your activism, built a company-wide organization. Together you learned about unions, management union-busting and the election process. You reached out to your colleagues on the line to answer their questions and encourage them to stand together to vote for AFA.

In many ways you have already experienced the power of solidarity. Your activism and efforts to gain AFA representation kept management at Delta from implementing some of the most onerous changes they had on the drawing board – and it required them to be responsive to some of your most common concerns. Of course, management took every opportunity to blame the union for holding back anything good that should have been automatic if they were committed to bringing the Flight Attendants together. Now that the ruling has come in, management has nobody to blame and is forced to implement the pay increases for the pre-merger Northwest Flight Attendants.

It’s a new day at AFA. We have new leaders, and new ideas. Throughout our history Flight Attendants have persevered in the face of enormous challenges. We have been at the forefront of social change and social justice, turning our job into a career and pressing for equality. Flight Attendants are creative, innovative and we demand perfection of ourselves. Working together we can again move our profession forward by leaps and bounds. And, we’ve brought in thousands of new members this year alone. Flight Attendants all over the industry are choosing AFA because they want to be part of the leading voice on Flight Attendant issues – the one union that is focused 100% on Flight Attendants because we only represent Flight Attendants.

We have already been flooded with questions about collecting cards to demonstrate support and gain AFA representation. We are hearing from some of Delta’s newest Flight Attendant recruits who are among the generation of the youthful activism taking place across the country – recognizing there must be a check on corporate excess and a movement for change. There is already an incredible network of leaders among you. Reach out to those who have recently joined our ranks and spread the word face-to-face about how to collect interest cards and send them to AFA. Cards are available at yourafa.org under the tab for Delta. This is your career. You decide.

As long as Delta Flight Attendants want to gain a voice at work with the world’s largest Flight Attendant union – we are here for you. As long as management knows you want AFA, some of their worst plans will remain at bay – you will provide yourselves and your co-workers a measure of protection. AFA’s first objective is to unite all cabin crewmembers. Every Flight Attendant with membership in AFA benefits as we build our solidarity. Without a union and a contract there are no guarantees – management controls our employment. And, while one group of Flight Attendants remains unrepresented management will continue to use that against us at the bargaining table where Flight Attendants are represented. There are tangible reasons why we all need to unite and take ownership of our future. This is Your AFA – our Flight Attendant union on a new day – ready for our future.

We look forward to working with you again soon. Fly safe.

Sincerely,

For more information, visit www.deltaafa.org.