Delta Pilots Prepare for Strike, While United Aviators Reject Contract
Joe Cortez November 01, 2022
In two separate moves, Delta Air Lines ALPA pilots overwhelmingly voted to authorize a future strike over their contract, while the United Airlines pilots organized by the union voted down a tentative contract agreement.
Delta Pilots Prepare to Strike Over Stalled Contract Negotiations
The ALPA announced the results of the Detla strike vote on Monday, October 31, 2022. The union states among the 96% of members participating, 99% voted to authorize a strike to obtain a new contract.
According to ALPA, negotiations for a new contract began in April 2019, with the goal of completing by the targeted amendable date in December 2019. After no deal was reached, both sides entered mediation, just to be interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mediation restarted by January 2022 – but there is no new contract agreement.
“Delta has rebounded from the pandemic and is poised to be stronger than ever, posting record revenues for the third quarter,” Capt. Jason Ambrosi, chair of the Delta Master Executive Council, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, our negotiations have dragged on for too long. Our goal is to reach an agreement, not to strike. The ball is in management’s court. It’s time for the Company to get serious at the bargaining table and invest in the Delta pilots.”
Although the unionized workers have authorized a strike, pilots cannot immediately walk off the job. Instead, the National Mediation Board must rule that additional mediation efforts will not result in a new contract and offer both sides arbitration. If both sides decline, a strike can begin after a 30-day “cooling off” period. The National Mediation Board has not yet made a decision on future mediation.
Delta has not publicly commented on the union’s vote. Instead, the carrier announced their most recent award: Best North American Airline from Business Traveller UK.
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United Pilots Kill Tentative Contract
Meanwhile at United, pilots there are unhappy with a proposed contract from their leadership. Of the 9,980 pilots voting on the tentative agreement, 94% voted against accepting the contract.
Union leadership claims that the tentative agreement offered by the Chicago-based carrier “fell short of the industry-leading contract United pilots have earned and deserve after leading the airline through the pandemic and back to profitability.” The press release did not elaborate on which areas the agreement did not meet their expectations.
With the rejection, both sides will return to negotiations to complete a future contract. The ALPA says they will begin “informational picketing events” to finalize an agreement.
The move comes weeks after United announced a third quarter 2022 net income of $942 million on total operating revenue of $12.9 billion, despite total capacity being down 9.8% compared to the same period in 2019. Leaders for the company have not commented on the ALPA’s vote.
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...this doesn't bode well for the holiday travel season. True, the 30 day "cooling off" period at Delta will get travellers through Thanksgiving, but a strike afterwards before the Yule holiday would be disasterous. Add to this United's contract rejection, and if they vote to strike, that leaves only one of the three majors left.
As in other circles of the corporate sector, companies are raking in unprecidented profits, but instead of improving matters for workers and customers tend to plough the profits into stock buybacks that only enrich their executives and wealthy sharehholders.
Although the unionized workers have authorized a strike, pilots cannot immediately walk off the job. Instead, the National Mediation Board must rule that additional mediation efforts will not result in a new contract and offer both sides arbitration. If both sides decline, a strike can begin after a 30-day “cooling off” period. The National Mediation Board has not yet made a decision on future mediation.
Looks like it will extend into December or beyond. It will take a while to get to that stage and then there has to be the additional 30 days cooling off period; so I think it may be after January 1, 2023. or later
As a business owner, I find it hard to believe that the profits are only going into 'stock buybacks' and 'executives'. It takes a lot to weather the pandemic storm that pretty much halted business across the globe for these companies for at least two years. I don't know about you, but the payment for just one airplane would kill me financially and the challenge of dealing with just this one aspect of an operating airline is beyond daunting. Frankly, with as much carnage that I saw in the hotel industry (with well over 20% of properties into foreclosure), it's almost surprising that the airlines are still around.
That being said, any profits should be used to pay back however they were able to weather the pandemic storm--not on shareholders, executives or anyone else for that matter because you have to 'pay the piper'. And the communications should be transparent with employees if this is being done.
Now, if none of this is being done and the company is playing like they never were at the edge of existance or shaking it off like they're God, then strike and break them. And then when they're broken, other companies who can operate better will buy the assets and do good things with them.
As another business owner who operates on a way smaller scale, I agree with not even being able to imagine how it would go. The amounts are insane. To me. However, Delta is full of people who are quite used to what they do. And if you take a look at their third quarter earnings report.. here's a direct quote from that:
"We reached a major milestone this quarter, with adjusted revenue 3 percent higher and unit revenues up 23 percent compared to 2019, marking the highest revenue and unit revenue quarter in Delta's history."
highest revenue quarter in Delta history eh? Doesn't sound like they're doing too badly. Perhaps some of that can go on to their pilots (and gasp, maybe even crew‽) instead of their shareholders and executives.
Ed Bastian received a $3 million cash "incentive" in 2021, after "giving up" his $990,000 salary for most of 2020. In what other world does someone not only get made whole but get $2 million more in a year where there was no profit to begin with?
Speaking of "Ed", has he given an updated comment about the effect of the new Georgia laws? Especially since he was/is speaking for the company and thus the shareholders.