BBBoy...AFA can NOT call an election until there is a SOC. The SOC must be approved by the FAA. I think you will see an election on the table after Jan. 20, 2008, set for perhaps March or April (I believe there will be NEW NMB members by then...
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On another note-Luke/BBoy, and other Old Delta folks
This post was on another site, think it was Airliners...how much of this is correct :
"Hello all,
I would like to address a few issues mentioned in all of these emails comparing Northwest pay/benefits to Delta pay/benefits:
1) Our Delta A-Day holders did not start to receive a 14:15 guarantee for a 3-day A-Day block until
January 1, 2008. Prior to that they received approximately $76.00/per unused A-Day, which was
later increased to approximately $85.00/per unused A-Day.
2) The “new†Delta Certified Sick Leave bank of 1200 hours that has been mentioned is very misleading.
What Delta is allowing us to do is put our unused PPT (Personal Paid Time) hours into our certified sick
leave bank UP TO A MAXIMUM OF 1200 hours. We only get 42:00 of PPT days per year (7 days at 6:00
per day or trips missed up to 42:00/year). It would take over 28 YEARS to accumulate 1200 hours. For
those who have already depleted their certified sick leave bank through a catastrophic illness, such as
cancer, they will suffer a devastating loss of income if they become ill again.
3) We have had a Social Security offset for our pension for decades. This not something new but it angers
all of us. Without the ability to negotiate legally, this will NEVER change.
The single most important fact of life here at Delta is that anything - and everything - can be changed without notice. We have no legal say in the matter. Since our first union election way back in 2002, we have had pay system changed; our pay cut - twice - with top-scale flight attendants receiving more of a cut than the rest; our pay cuts were across-the-board cuts while pay raises were only on selected items; we lost our night pay, our longevity pay, our authorized leave pay, our international pay for years, our delay pay; we lost our 5th, 6th and 7th week of vacation (a loss of approximately $300.00 per year per vacation); most of our duty rigs were eliminated and while some have been returned, those that have been returned never seem to kick in with the kind of trips we have nowadays (with the exception of the returned ‘Minutes Under by Segment†duty rig); we have been hampered with a preferential bidding system that negates seniority; our trip quality has deteriorated; our reserve system was eliminated and replaced by an A-Day system that causes more people to have reserve days than ever before; our traditional sick leave system was replaced with a noncertified/certified sick bank system with 42:00 of PPT per year to be used for illness, injury, or personal time; our certified sick leave bank can only be “restocked†by putting unused PPT time into it at the rate of 42:00 hours per year; we now pay medical insurance premiums that once cost us nothing plus higher deductibles and co-pays; our retirees have NO medical coverage after age 65 except Medicare......I can go on and on but I think you get the point - everything at Delta can change and a lot of it already has changed.
A better way of addressing this issue is not to compare apples to oranges but to stress the vulnerability Delta flight attendants have without a contract and the value the Northwest contract contains. "
Thanks
