Delta Airlines target of AFL-CIO rally for right to organize

By Don McIntosh, Staff reporter

In the third annual union mobilization dubbed "Seven Days In June," a week of rallies and demonstrations June 10 to 17 in several U.S. cities called for greater protection for the right to organize. The mobilization is part of a national AFL-CIO campaign called Voice@Work.

In Portland the key event was a June 13 gathering at the Delta Airlines ticket office at Portland International Airport. Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president of the national AFL-CIO, was present as pro-union Delta flight attendants delivered an "Appeal for Fairness" to management. "We're talking about dignity, fairness, and a voice at work," Chavez-Thompson declared. "Delta flight attendants don't have that."

For five years, the Association of Flight Attendants has been campaigning nationwide to organize 20,000 flight attendants who work at Delta. Under the Railway Labor Act, which covers union campaigns at airlines, organizing has to take place companywide. Delta is the only major U.S. airline in which flight attendants are not represented by a union.

In the Appeal for Fairness, signed by Portland-based Delta flight attendants, employees ask the company not to use misleading propaganda, force workers to attend meetings about unions, interrogate workers one-on-one about their union sympathies, or fire, harass, discipline or spy on workers for favoring the union.

The appeal also asks that Delta give workers reasonable access to arguments from both sides and commit to respect their choice, in the event they vote in the union, by starting contract negotiations within a month of the election and submitting to binding arbitration any contract issues that are still unresolved after one year.

Delta flight attendant Cliff Smith, who is active in Portland in the union campaign, said many flight attendants at Delta are unhappy because the company ended lump-sum profit-sharing bonuses last year.

Locally, morale also suffered after a popular employee, Yasuko Ishikawa, was fired last October for abnormalities in a urinalysis drug test. Smith said her case caused a lot of alarm among the flight attendants, because no one who knew her believed she was capable of trying to fake a urine test.

"Without a union there to research the case, even in the event she was allowed to take an independent medical exam, she wouldn't know what to ask for," Smith said.

The AFA represents 47,000 flight attendants at 26 airlines. Several other unions represent flight attendants, including the Teamsters, Machinists, and the Transport Workers Union, which is also campaigning to represent the flight attendants at Delta.

After the rally in Portland, Chavez-Thompson was scheduled to attend several other Seven Days In June events in Portland.

She visited Teamsters pickets at the Overnite Transportation facility during the noon-hour. Workers at Overnite voted to join the Teamsters in 1995 and are still fighting for a first contract.

Chavez-Thompson also was part of a Portland-based Workers' Rights Board hearing,which was aimed at speeding up resolution of negotiations for a first contract between the book store and Longshore and Warehouse Local 5.

Workers' Rights Boards have been organized in 12 cities around the country by Jobs with Justice to focus public attention on labor disputes. The goal is to help resolve disputes in the best interests of the workers affected and the communities in which they live.

The board hearing is the first of its kind in Portland. The board is comprised of community members including academics, legislators, religious leaders and community activists. The hearing took place after this issue of the Northwest Labor Press went to press.