The DL management in my city has been down to ATL for meetings and came back with all kinds of great info for us. Some were told that we will be merging ops in July. Some were told that no date was set for the merge. The one thing that is consistent with the local management is his persistence with pushing a union vote right now. Whats the rush?
The better question is why is DL management so eager to put each of the unions in an untenable position?
Also, JMO, but I think it drives them batty that they have no say on when an election is called.
I would guess that they want the vote before more layoffs are announced.
I believe that laid-off employees would be eligible to vote. A laid-off employee is much more likely to vote for a union.
You bet they are... Unfortunately, they're also harder to track down/keep in the loop...
Correct, and Delta management wants it now with a management friendly NMB still in place instead of a fair NMB in place. They can't run their "Give a rip don't click" campaign with a fair NMB.
Quite right. With Van de Water at the helm, the chance for a fair election is slim at best. Even those ardently opposed to representation should at least be able to agree that a
fair election is the right thing to do.
Is it frustrating? Yup. Do almost all of us want to vote, like, yesterday? Of course. However, with so much at stake, it's critical to do it *right*, as opposed to fast.
Also, a poster on the Facebook site wrote that the Single Operating Certificate or SOC, may be delayed until mid 2010 (rather than early 2010). Has anyone else heard that?
An SOC is not required for an election. An NMB determination of a "single transportation system" is. Two entirely different animals.
They are delaying because they are worried. Worried they will lose. Look at Lynx and Ryan. Did AFA stall with them because of the "unfair NMB"???". No of course not. But with DAL...they are.
Apples and oranges. If nothing else, I would think that the logistics involved in DL/NW are huge comparatively.
Well maybe, but as of so far AFA has yet to provide an answer to the question..have they?
Yes. So has the IAM, for that matter. Where both need to improve is getting that out to the masses.
I do think the election is going to be close. It is really going to be up to the NW f/a's as we don't know their percentages for pro-contract vs. no contract. I think, for the most part, the DL 40% will vote for representation again. NW f/a's must come thru at a near 80% for representation in order for it to pass. NW has never been without a union, so their f/a's will be faced with that question and opportunity for the first time.
Same on the Ground Ops side. I think we need 95% or better from NW people to pass based on sheer numbers alone (DL ramp outnumbers NW by ~1.5 to 1, and the DL agents are ~2 to 1 over their NW counterparts.).
NMB has already ruled that a SOC is not necessary to all an election.
Correct. See above.
Umm not sure about the anology, maybe is it something like a contract would be a nightmare before everyone is fully integrated, trained etc? Some contract terms would apply to some but not to others as a result? Or is it that whole NMB thingy?
Why can't a joint contract be negotiated with future integration in mind? Is there something preventing that?
