Delta Air Lines is battling a spike in flight attendants calling out sick, especially over weekends, holidays, and ahead of big events like the Superbowl. The carrier’s attempts to get flight attendants back to work, however, could spur on a major unionization drive.
So far, at least, Delta hasn’t seen any significant operational disruption from the rise in flight attendants failing to show up for work, but the trend has clearly got the airline spooked and managers are taking action to protect the carrier’s schedule.
Over recent weeks, flight attendants at the Atlanta-based airline have received emails urging them to get back to work while also warning that measures would have to be implemented to turn the situation around if sick rates didn’t improve.
Those warnings, however, don’t appear to have worked, so Delta plans to dramatically increase the number of flight attendants working reserve duties to address last-minute shortfalls.
What would seem like a sensible solution has not, though, impressed the Association of Flight Attendants, which is fighting to represent Delta’s non-unionized flight attendant workforce.
“Delta management is on a tear in an attempt to demean and demoralize our workgroup for problems they created,” the union slammed on Thursday. “It’s clear that management’s goal is to point fingers and divide us as Flight Attendants in order to distract us from holding them accountable.”
The union says the current situation is of Delta’s making, given the fact that the airline doesn’t have a formal sickness policy and flight attendants must rely on the Family and Medical Leave Act.
With several seasonal viruses circulating and occasional disruption from winter weather, the union claims flight attendants are “burnt out,” and Delta’s employment policies are doing little to encourage flight attendants to show up for work.
Holidays are no longer worth flying because the airline’s incentive pay falls behind rivals, while there’s extra pressure because hundreds of flight attendants were awarded personal leaves of absence over the traditionally quieter winter period, the union alleges.
Delta is hoping to increase resilience by placing up to 40% of flight attendants on a form of ‘reserve’ or ‘standby’, which the airline calls A-Days. Flight attendants affected by the change will have to work six A-Days a month in which they are on call for the entire day from midnight to 11:59 pm.
Delta says A-Days give flight attendants more flexibility and a better quality of life.
Some flight attendants, however, agree with Delta’s response to the uptick in sick outs and claim crew members hired during and after the pandemic are responsible for the airline’s scheduling issues.
This isn’t the first time that post-pandemic hires have been blamed for a drop in standards, and several major international airlines have toughened up hiring standards in response to the complaints.
In January, a veteran United Airlines flight attendant complained that ‘standards went out the window, 100%,” as airlines rushed to hire flight attendants as pandemic-era restrictions were lifted and travel demand skyrocketed.
“The new hires we’ve been getting the last few years are, for the most part, unanimously hated amongst the entire workgroup,” the disgruntled crew member said in response to a post on the social media site Reddit. “You can’t generalize every single one, of course, but for every good one, there are 10 awful, embarrassing godawful ones.”
“They aren’t hired for their attention to class, etiquette, professionalism, service, etc. like it once was. A scary amount of these people only have Taco Bell and McDonald’s as prior work experience on their resume.”
I’m a recovered Delta loyalist and therefore have nothing good to say about the company so it causes me intense pain to say this but possibly excluding extra days on reserve being good and about holiday pay, Delta is completely right on just about everything here.
As to the flight attendants joining a union, that makes no sense whatsoever. Delta specifically pays a premium to FA’s to make joining a union less enticing. Why fork out union dues when you’re already making more money than any union member in the same industry?
Your comment clearly indicates that you prioritize money over good working conditions, and that’s a problematic stance.
Unions provide so much more than just pay and job security; they foster a strong sense of community and advocate for a healthier work-life balance. I’ve been involved in shaping the flight attendant workgroup to enhance our quality of life and working conditions.
It’s unfair to hold all flight attendants accountable for the missteps of management. Leadership needs to take responsibility for their actions. Honestly, it’s outrageous to think they can just put FAs on call for 24 hours without any regard for the impact on our lives!
I do wish that you would simply respond once rather than multiple times under different names. That said, I’m overall extremely pro-union when large companies or government are concerned. I think that unions are critical for the well being of normal people working in the USA today to balance out corporate greed by fighting for higher wages, better and safer working conditions, and an overall healthy work/life balance. Ironically, unions in other airlines provide an inducement for Delta to pay a premium to keep unions out. From an outside perspective would you prefer equal working conditions and notably better pay for working for Delta or less for working for a competitor. Please remember that I intensely dislike Delta so I’m truly trying to play Devil’s Advocate here.
The reason I happen to agree with Delta in this particular case is because the airline is getting screwed big time in a highly suspicious manner. Blaming Delta for not having a formal policy to keep people from abusing the system is scapegoating the company. The current system has worked well for many years until glaring abuse is causing backlash from the airline. While people as a whole tend to prefer specific rules would you really rather that Delta invoke some onerous policy rather than sticking with the common sense system that has worked quite well so far?
lol what “premium” is that. It makes ALL the sense in the world to trust our own voice and unionize over someone else with secondary motives especially capitalists.
You need to get updated on current industry pay. PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE PROFIT SHARING as it is not guaranteed. A union provides due process with representation, (try hiring a lawyer on your own when fighting a huge company), defined work rules, and a seat at the big table when company-wide decisions need to be addressed. Transparency and equal application of opportunity rather than favoritism goes a long way in corporate morale. Ask a pilot if they would give up their union.
I will happily pay an hour of my wage monthly for a union contract. It’s an insurance policy basically. Employees know where they stand., and furthermore so does the company in which they work for,
You are very highly incorrect in
Delta being top paid without a Union on property. HIGHLY!!
Unions are nothing but the organized crime of labor. They collect protection money and use it to spawn racketeering, coersion and blackmail. The labor protection should be part of law instead of controlled by an unscrupulous caste of middle man organizations that drain the economy and sow discord.
There goes the AFA union with the typical divide and conquer rhetoric. That is all a union is good for….keeping the group divided senior vs junior, A Day holders vs non A day holders, young vs old….keep it up! You will continue to lose any unionization election on the property.
Sick calloffs will only be worse if unionized. Nobody abuses sick leave like union workers.
Thank you lance delta
Fascinating. Please share your evidence.
Proof please.
DILLIGAF?
If Delta FAs are unhappy, they can easily leave and return to selling vegetables on the side of the road. They are easily replaced.
If FAs abuse the system by calling in sick when, in fact, they are not, then they obviously do not care about Delta and, more importantly, the people whose flight may be adversely effected. They deserve to be back on food stamps.
Flight attendants are easily replaced. Their job requires no critical thinking and anybody can be trained to do it. Delta should start a large recruitment drive and then start firing FAs who abuse the sick leave policy.