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A letter to Delta pilots from Tampa reservations agentTue, 04/11/2006 - 4:18pm
By: Letters to the ...
I am a reservations agent in Tampa, Fla., and I thought that it might be beneficial to express to you what many of us on the front lines feel about the pilots’ position regarding a strike. I don’t write this to attack you in any way, and in fact, I am probably more sympathetic than most of my fellow agents. I recognize that nobody wants to have their pay cut, and while many of us that make less than $30,000 a year find it difficult to be sympathetic to a work group that averages over $150,000 a year, I recognize that people tend to live up to their means and a cut in pay for anyone is a real and sincere sacrifice. That being said, I believe that your threat to strike is myopic and self-serving. I have read some of the material on the ALPA Web site and in a number of places the claim is made that Delta is “Our Airline.” I beg to differ. It is not only “your” airline. There are about 6,000 pilots out of over 47,000 employees. It is as much my airline as it is yours and yet you hold the power to take action that will not only affect you, but 41,000 other people. I am certain we could have a healthy debate about contracts and fairness, what you have and have not given, what the company has done or not done ad nauseam. I don’t doubt that there is some validity to your position. No side can be completely right in such a matter. But the bottom line is that this is not the same industry that it was 10 years ago. 9-11, the advent of low-cost carriers, changes in the dynamics of business travel and rising fuel prices, among other things, have altered the dynamics of the industry forever and an airline simply cannot sustain itself with the cost structure it was once able to. I find it difficult to believe that if you shut down our airline, the people you represent are going to be able to walk out on the street and find jobs making what they would make even if you accept Delta’s concession in toto. One line in your letter caught my attention: “It is a sad footnote in Delta’s history that in a business where people matter...” To be blunt, people are not just pilots and as you chart a course forward, I hope you will take into consideration that there are 41,000 of us out here that your decisions will impact; 41,000 of us that have mortgages, kids to feed, cars to pay for and backs to put clothes on. We have made our own sacrifices, absorbed pay cuts and benefit reductions and we have hung in there because we believe that if we all pull together, we can turn Delta around and bring her back to the great airline she once was. Quite frankly, we are angry that 7.8 percent of the workforce has power over the rest of us, that 7.8 percent of the workforce has the capacity to send the other 92.2 percent of us to the unemployment line. Since it is OUR airline, perhaps all 47,000 of us should vote as to whether you strike or not. I think I am pretty typical of most of the front-line Delta employees. I made less than $30,000 last year. I have taken pay and benefit cuts to stay with Delta. Why? Because I enjoy my job, I enjoy the ability to travel and I have found Delta to be a good company to work for. But, at what I make, I don’t have a cushion. I live pretty much paycheck to paycheck and I am basically up the proverbial creek if that paycheck stops, even for a short time. I would guess that most of your pilots have the means to handle a temporary period of unemployment, but most of us on the customer service side do not have that luxury. Is your union going to help me pay my rent and child support if you choose to strike and run this airline out of business? You have complained that you believe that the company views the threat of a strike as “saber rattling” or empty threats, but I get the impression that you believe the claim that a strike would force a liquidation of the company as an idle threat as well. I have a background in business and a degree in accounting and let me assure you, these are not empty words. Delta Air Lines does not have the resources to survive even a short strike. If one looks at the situation objectively, one has to conclude that the pilots’ position is based either on ignorance to reality or that you simply do not care what happens to YOUR airline. Either way, it seems pretty foolish from this vantage point. Finally, I should add that I work in special member services and spend my day talking almost exclusively to medallion level frequent fliers. I talk to between 60 and 100 people a day and I am asked multiple times each day what I think about the possibility of a strike. In all of the months that this has been going on, I have yet to ever have one passenger state that they support your position. Most are sympathetic, but state the obvious: the industry has changed and you would be foolish to strike. I don’t expect this to change your mind, or alter your position, but I felt that it was important, as you move forward, to be reminded of the responsibility you have taken upon yourself. You are not only playing with the lives of the men and women you represent, you are playing with the lives of 41,000 other people, not to mention our passengers, who have entrusted their money and plans to us in the faith that we will get them where they need to go. There is only one word that can be used for a course of action that would negatively impact so many people in such a profound way: selfish. I urge you to endeavor to find some solution to this issue short of shutting down the airline. It is simply not the right thing to do. Mike Maharrey 
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