IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MAY 1, 2008

UNIONS WARN LAWMAKERS AGAINST NORTHWEST-DELTA MERGER

WASHINGTON (PAI)— The proposed mega-merger between Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines, with Delta as the survivor, would harm workers, threaten their unions and could cost jobs and pay, two top union leaders warned.

Speaking at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on April 24 on the deal, Machinists President Thomas Buffenbarger warned that Atlanta-based Delta’s management could use the deal for union-busting.

And Association of Flight Attendants-CWA Vice President Veda Shook said the merger could threaten both the current AFA-CWA representation election at Delta and the unionized Flight Attendants at Northwest.

The unionists spoke after Delta CEO Richard Anderson and Northwest CEO Douglas Steenland spent a lengthy session defending the proposed merger, which would create the nation’s second-largest airline in market share. Delta is third, while Twin Cities-based Northwest is fifth. Southwest is first, with 19.4%. The combo would have 19.2%.

Anderson, who took the lead in answering questions, denied the proposed merger--which must pass Transportation Department and Justice Department approval
--would hurt the unions. But he would not pledge company neutrality in the AFA-CWA organizing drive among Delta’s 13,400 attendants.

And, in a little-noticed and unexplored section of his remarks, Anderson admitted Delta’s pay scales for its pilots, flight attendants and ground personnel, are below the airline industry average. If the merger occurs, “We will move all employees, over time, up to industry standard pay and benefits,” Anderson said.

He did not make a distinction between Delta and Northwest workers and did not stick around to answer questions about what would happen to pay and benefits for workers at the combined airline.

But even without questions on pay and benefits, Buffenbarger and Shook strongly opposed the merger and urged lawmakers to halt it, if they could.

Buffenbarger, whose union represents ground workers at Northwest, said IAM alone yielded $9 billion in concessions over the years to six then-bankrupt airlines, including Delta and Northwest. The two carriers filed for bankruptcy just over two years ago, and used that to shed pensions, people and pay.

“One factor these airlines will not admit publicly is that they expect this merger to eliminate the union representation rights of Northwest Airlines workers,” Buffenbarger added. “They want to use this merger as a weapon to eliminate the jobs and rights of thousands of workers.”

“In a meeting with AFA-CWA Northwest leadership, management stated flatly that there would not be a seat at the table or the flight attendants in the merger discussions,” Shook added. Managers then “went on to state the current Delta was non-union and the ‘new Delta’ had every intention of remaining non-union: Delta planned to defeat the union and prevent the flight attendants from having or keeping the bargaining rights that are essential in this merger.”

That prompted committee chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.)--whose hometown of Detroit is another Northwest hub--to wonder why the airlines “have such hostility to the people who actually make them work.” Conyers was skeptical of the merger

“That’s a very good question,” Buffenbarger replied. “In airline deregulation, Congress and the industry promised more airlines, not fewer, more choices, better point-to-point service and lower fares” among other things, 30 years ago. “None of that exists today,” he commented.

“And when the tough times came, they asked us for cuts” and the unions agreed. But the airlines “cast away our pension plans and destroyed the value of the stock we had” in another of the bankrupt airlines, then-employee-owned United. That made him wary of Delta CEO Anderson’s promise that the merged airline’s workers would get “an equity stake”--stock--in the carrier.

“The role of government is to put balance back into this process when the market doesn’t,” Buffenbarger declared.

The committee took no action, though the unionists’ comments prompted Conyers to muse that maybe he should call the two CEOs back for a second hearing to answer the questions IAM and AFA-CWA raised.

Meanwhile, the chambers of commerce in all three of Northwest’s hubs--the Twin Cities, Detroit and Memphis--strongly supported the merger. So did Delta’s Airline Pilots Association-represented pilots, in a statement sent to the panel. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which represents Northwest’s remaining U.S.-based mechanics, raised questions in a written statement but did not outright oppose the deal.

The GOP Bush regime, which must approve the Northwest-Delta merger, was not invited to testify, though Conyers pointed out it has never turned down a mega-merger--including other airline mergers.

[back]