Delta absorbed Northwest – and their union. But MSP flight attendants didn’t stop fighting

January 26, 2015 by
MSP-based Delta flight attendants gear up to vote “yes” to joining the IAM during a meet-and-greet event in Bloomington last month.

MSP-based Delta flight attendants gear up to vote “yes” to joining the IAM during a meet-and-greet event in Bloomington last month.

For many of the 1,800 Delta flight attendants based at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the upcoming vote to form a union is about more than wages, benefits and work rules. It’s about getting back what they lost after Delta’s merger with MSP-based Northwest Airlines four years ago.

“I’ve lived with a contract and without a contract now,” said Tammy Rustad, a flight attendant from St. Paul with 19 years experience at Delta and Northwest. “For me, I prefer things in black and white.”

Rustad is not alone. At a “meet-and-greet” event hosted in Bloomington last week by the International Association of Machinists, the union vying to represent flight attendants, Rustad and other veterans of Northwest talked about what losing their union meant – and what they stand to gain in the upcoming election.

‘A lot of tears’

Robert Clark remembered hearing the announcement four years ago, in the wake of Delta’s acquisition of Northwest, that flight attendants at the newly organized company had voted to reject union representation. Northwest workers had been members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

“There were a lot of tears; people were very sad,” Clark said. “I was sad, but it really touched me seeing how many lives it actually affected.”

Clark, who lives in Eagan, has worked as a flight attendant out of MSP for the last 15 years. It’s a career path that would have fizzled early, he said, if it weren’t for his union.

After a passenger filed a complaint based on Clark’s sexual orientation, his employer moved to fire Clark. “The company just wanted to take this person’s word,” he said. “But the union was like, ‘This letter should have gone in the trash.’”

Tammy Rustad, a flight attendant from St. Paul, and Robert Clark, flight attendant from Eagan, attended the IAM meet-and-greet last week.

Tammy Rustad, a flight attendant from St. Paul, and Robert Clark, a flight attendant from Eagan, attended the IAM meet-and-greet last week.

Negotiating for safety

Burnsville resident Laurie Gandrud, a 20-year veteran flight attendant, was quick to itemize flight attendants’ losses in the transition from union Northwest to non-union Delta, from safety provisions and grievance procedures to retiree health insurance and pensions.

In particular, Gandrud hopes regaining a union contract will lead to protections against long workdays on short rest, situations that put safety at risk, she said. “I’m looking forward to safety and health improvements,” she said. “I’m very passionate about getting back what we had and what we lost.”

Gandrud’s passion and enthusiasm is reflective of the grassroots organizing effort, begun just over two years ago. One flight attendant at a time, union activists collected signatures on 12,000 cards – from 60 percent of all Delta flight attendants – asking the National Mediation Board to conduct an organizing election.

Rustad, who was part of a delegation that delivered the 12,000 cards to the NMB in Washington D.C., called the organizing effort a “large accomplishment,” especially given that flight attendants don’t share a common worksite. “These are people most of us have never met or seen face to face,” she said.

Industry leader, or industry standard?

Flight attendants at the meet-and-greet reported that anti-union mailings already have begun arriving in their mailboxes, as Delta attempts to discourage the organizing campaign.

But Angie Brewer, a 25-year veteran of Delta, said the co-workers she talks to are not likely to change course. Most Delta flight attendants, Brewer said, see disparities between their wages, benefits and work rules and those of flight attendants at other airlines – and they look to collective bargaining as the equalizer.

“We’re the No. 1 airline, and I believe that,” Brewer said. “We outrank all the other airlines in terms of passenger service and customer satisfaction. We have been turning huge annual profits.

“But as flight attendants, we have been told our work rules, wages and benefits are ‘industry standard.’ I believe we should lead the industry too.”

Clark agreed: “If it wasn’t for us, the company wouldn’t be making all this money,” he said. “We’re the face of Delta. We’re the ones face-to-face with the passengers. It’s important they share that by pay and benefits across the board, otherwise it’s a slap in the face.”

Union wave at Delta?

Other workers at Delta – notably the pilots, who enjoy better work rules and sick leave than flight attendants – have used collective bargaining to improve their working conditions, and Rustad anticipates the flight attendants’ vote will be the first in a wave of union victories at the Atlanta-based carrier.

“When we do win the vote, I expect Delta will be at the negotiating table, ready to go,” Rustad said.

“Delta keeps telling us we’re the world’s best employees,” she added. “I’d love to be compensated and treated as such.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Airport workers win paid sick leave, continue fight to reinstate fired Delta worker

December 15, 2014 by
Members of the 15 Now coalition stand in support of Ahmed Ahmed, who testified at the Metropolitan Airports Commission meeting today in favor of a proposed paid leave policy, passed by commissioners later in the meeting

Members of the 15 Now coalition stand in support of Ahmed Ahmed, who testified at the Metropolitan Airports Commission meeting today in favor of a proposed paid leave policy, passed by commissioners later in the meeting

Airport workers’ campaign for better wages and conditions took a step forward today, as the Metropolitan Airports Commission unanimously approved a measure requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to all workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Supporters of 15 Now, a worker-led coalition seeking to raise the minimum wage at MSP to $15 per hour, cheered the MAC’s vote as a victory, but one that came at a steep cost for one of the campaign’s most vocal supporters.

Kip Hedges, a baggage handler and 26-year airline employee, was fired by Delta Air Lines recently for comments he made in support of the 15 Now campaign in an interview with the labor-news website Workday Minnesota. During the open forum portion of today’s meeting, Hedges and other airport workers urged MAC members to publicly denounce the firing.

“It’s important that MAC supports the rights of workers who are fighting for change,” AirServ worker Ahmed Ahmed said, “because we know there’s a lot that must change.”

Hedges praised MAC members for supporting paid sick leave, and he acknowledged they have no say over hiring and firing at Delta. “But what you do have is moral authority,” Hedges said. “I would like you to make it clear to Delta Air Lines that they stand alone on this.”

Fired Delta worker Kip Hedges speaks during the open forum portion of the MAC meeting. "I can assure everyone here that I, for sure, am not going to stop doing what I’m doing," he said.

Fired Delta worker Kip Hedges: “I can assure everyone here that I, for sure, am not going to stop doing what I’m doing.”

“Come out on my side,” he added. “Come out on Ahmed’s side, for the workers who make this the best airport in the country.”

[Add your name to a petition calling on Delta to reinstate Hedges.]

If the MAC fails to send a message, Delta and other employers will be emboldened to retaliate against other workers who, like Hedges, take a stand against low wages – or for collective bargaining.

Before being fired, Hedges was active in efforts to organize baggage handlers at Delta, a campaign supported by the Machinists union. He said a former co-worker reported being questioned last week by Delta management about his role in collecting signed cards in support of an organizing election.

“It was a shot across the bow,” Hedges said. “You can do something about that by using your moral authority to make sure that Delta and other employers understand that … workers have the right to raise their voice in the workplace and get a union.”

MAC members appeared receptive to workers’ concerns.

Carl Crimmins, a past president of the Minnesota Pipe Trades Association who serves on the MAC, said attempts by any employer to intimidate pro-union workers were unacceptable. He called for an ordinance to establish standards for labor relations at the airport.

“I think a good, healthy discussion on a labor peace ordinance is something this commission should take up,” Crimmins said.

Commissioner Erica Prosser said the work of drafting and implementing a paid leave policy, which will allow airport workers to accrue up to 72 hours of sick, family or emergency leave annually, would not fall on the MAC “if all the employees at the airport were allowed collective-bargaining rights.”

“We wouldn’t, as a commission, have to deal with these issues ourselves,” Prosser said.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Airport workers rally behind Delta baggage handler fired for activism

December 5, 2014 by
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison speaks in support of fired Delta baggage handler Kip Hedges (blue coat) at a rally at MSP Airport.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison speaks in support of fired Delta baggage handler Kip Hedges (blue coat) during a rally at MSP Airport.

Airport workers, union members and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison today called on Delta Air Lines to reinstate Kip Hedges, a pro-union activist fired just days ago for speaking publicly in favor of a $15 minimum wage at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

About 200 people joined the demonstration outside Termainal 1 at MSP Airport. They shut down the terminal’s Upper Level Roadway before being ordered by police to disperse.

Originally planned as part of the Black Friday Week of Action that also included Walmart and fast-food strikes, the airport protest became an outlet for activists and co-workers outraged at Hedges’ dismissal. Protesters carried signs and joined chants urging Delta to “bring Kip back.”

Hedges, a baggage handler and 26-year airline employee, told Workday Minnesota that Delta management issued the termination after citing comments he made in a video supporting of the “15 Now” campaign for a higher airport minimum wage.

In this video from today’s protest, Hedges recounts what he said about Delta, as his supporters echo his statement.

“In spite of being fired by Delta, I don’t plan to stop speaking out about low-wage workers at Delta, or the issue of unionizing,” Hedges said. “In the past two days, I’ve received massive support from my co-workers, from brother and sister flight attendants at Delta, the International Association of Machinists and the labor movement in Minnesota. This is the kind of force that it will take to win $15 at MSP, and it’s the kind of spirit that will lead to unionizing Air Serv and Delta ramp workers.”

About 200 people joined the march along outside the upper level of Terminal 1, calling for $15 wages and union rights.

About 200 people joined the march along outside the upper level of Terminal 1, calling for $15 wages and union rights.

Meanwhile, passenger-support workers at MSP, employed by contractors like AirServ, said Delta’s effort to silence Hedges would not keep them from working for a $15 minimum wage and a union.

“I do important work at the Airport for other peoples families,” said Randa Jama, a mother of two who works as a wheelchair assistant for AirServ. “I wish AirServ would support my kids the way I help Delta passengers and unaccompanied minors.”

Ellison, a DFLer from Minneapolis, called on Delta to reinstate Hedges. He also encouraged passenger-support workers’ to continue their organizing campaign.

“We can go a day, a week, a month without the CEO of Delta. We actually don’t need him,” Ellison said. “But you try to go even a short period of time without the cleaners or the drivers or the baggage handlers, and this whole place stops.

“You deserve respect, and you must be paid fairly.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Airport workers confront Delta CEO during Minneapolis luncheon

September 25, 2014 by

Three workers interrupted Delta CEO Richard Anderson’s speech before a Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday in Minneapolis. They questioned why Anderson’s salary increased to over $14 million last year, while workers who assist Delta passengers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport struggle to make ends meet.

“Mr. Anderson, Delta is making record profits, yet wheelchair agents who transport Delta passengers are paid minimum wage,” said Darcy Landau, a military veteran from St. Paul who works as a wheelchair agent at MSP. “We can barely survive. Will airport workers ever share in this growth?”

Video footage, taken by Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union, shows Landau and other workers being escorted out of the banquet room after interrupting Anderson’s speech.

Landau and other workers have been attempting to organize with SEIU Local 26 for the last few years. They do not work directly for Delta, but for subcontractors that handle the airlines’ passenger-service responsibilities at MSP.

Delta reported profits of $2.7 billion in 2013, but those record earnings have yet to trickle down into passenger-service workers’ paychecks. Outside of the luncheon, workers and supporters held a sign reading “Record Profits for Delta, Poverty Wages for Workers.”

Abera Siyoum, an AirServ cart driver at MSP, asked Anderson about a comment made by the CEO in reference to the corporation’s record success in 2013.

“Mr. Anderson, you said in the news that ‘across the board 2013 was an outstanding year,’ yet since I must work 70 hours a week to survive I hardly get to see my children,” said Siyoum, who works two jobs to support his wife and two children. “Do you think my family is as happy about Delta’s profits as you are?”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Airport workers, disability-rights advocates join in push for higher wages

June 16, 2014 by
Demonstrators block traffic outside Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, protesting low wages and poor conditions for workers who provide services to travelers with disabilities.

Demonstrators block traffic outside Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, protesting low wages and poor conditions for workers who provide services to travelers with disabilities.

A demonstration in support of low-wage workers who assist Delta Air Lines’ operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport began at today’s meeting of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) and spilled into the roadway outside Terminal 1’s ticketing area, forcing lane closures and resulting in 13 arrests.

The protest targeted low wages, under-staffing and other poor working conditions that, according to a report released last week, make travel more difficult for elderly passengers and those with disabilities.

web.MSP-arrests5“I’m embarrassed about the way we treat passengers and how long they have to wait for wheelchairs and electric carts,” Darcy Landau, who works as a wheelchair agent serving Delta passengers, told commissioners during an open forum before the MAC’s meeting. “Passengers get frustrated. It makes them feel like they’re not important. It’s discrimination, and that’s not right.”

Federal law requires airlines to provide assistance to passengers with disabilities while boarding and deplaning aircraft. Airlines are also required to train workers how to transport passengers with disabilities safely.

Airlines usually outsource passenger services to subcontractors that change as bids to service an airport are won and lost. But as their employers change, workers remain stuck in a cycle of low wages.

Abera Siyoum, a wheelchair agent employed by Delta’s latest subcontractor, Airserv, attended the MAC meeting between his morning shift at MSP and his second job. “Like many of my co-workers, my family cannot survive on what I make at this job alone,” Siyoum told commissioners.

Siyoum acknowledged that fatigue from working two jobs, coupled with the stress of rarely seeing his wife and two children, takes a toll on the service he’s able to provide for passengers who rely on wheelchair and electric-cart services.

“I don’t get enough sleep. I am stressed about being able to pay my rent,” he said. “It makes it hard sometimes to do my job.”

Airserv worker Abera Siyoum marches with his daughter Coket.

Airserv worker Abera Siyoum marches with his daughter Coket.

Siyoum, Landau and other Airserv employees at MSP are working to organize a union with Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union.

Local 26 already represents janitors at MSP, who are employed by Airserv’s parent company, ABM, and it’s not hard to see why passenger-service workers want to form a union too. While ABM pays its union employees at MSP average wages of $14 per hour with benefits, Airserv pays average wages of $8 with no benefits.

Local 26 President Javier Morillo called on the MAC to follow the lead of airports in Boston, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale by passing a “labor-peace policy,” which would make it easier for workers to form and keep a union as Delta shifts contractors at the airport.

After the open forum workers and their supporters, including several members of the disability-rights organization ADAPT, marched and wheeled themselves out of the MAC chambers, through the terminal and onto the road outside the ticketing area.

As police watched and a crowd of supporters chanted slogans, eight protesters sat down in the street, backed by three ADAPT members in wheelchairs and two more people standing behind them. All 13 were arrested for blocking traffic.

The civil disobedience follows last week’s release of a new report, “Able, But Not Willing,” that finds passengers with disabilities face continued problems at MSP – problems workers and ADAPT members pledged to work together to solve.

Police arrest Darrell Paulsen, a leader in the disability-rights organization ADAPT.

Police arrest Darrell Paulsen, a leader in the disability-rights organization ADAPT.

Earlier, airport commissioners listened as ADAPT leader Darrell Paulsen, who was among those arrested, recalled watching workers drop his then-pregnant wife, Nikki, while transferring her from a wheelchair to her seat on an outgoing plane at MSP.

Paulsen urged commissioners to consider whether their mission was to “make Delta millions of dollars in profits” or to ensure dignity for all travelers. “If you believe in dignity, it is time for you to take action,” he said.

Delta, in particular, has a track record of failing to serve its ticketed passengers with disabilities in accordance with federal law, according to the report, which found that Delta was fined twice in the last 10 years by the Department of Transportation.

The report included several recommendations to improve services, including proper training, higher staffing levels and better wages for workers who serve passengers with disabilities.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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