Airline bailout stirs Delta feud with flight attendants union

A potential government bailout has become the latest flash point in Delta Air Lines Inc.’s longstanding battle with labor organizers trying to unionize the company’s flight attendants.

Delta’s senior vice president of in-flight service, Allison Ausband, accused the Association of Flight Attendants of opposing any assistance to the company. The union, which has called on Congress to attach certain conditions to any support, has been “suggesting that Delta should be excluded from any potential federal aid,” Ausband said Wednesday in a memo to employees.

The Atlanta-based carrier said the memo came in response to a video message from AFA President Sara Nelson, which was posted online and sent to employees this week. With the coronavirus pandemic torpedoing travel demand, Nelson said any aid should come with rules including “no federal funds for airlines that are fighting their workers’ efforts to join a union.”

Nelson said Delta’s allegation was untrue, and described it as a scare tactic meant to deter organizing among company flight attendants. The union is advocating for Congress to avert layoffs by subsidizing airline payroll costs and extending interest-free loans to the companies.

“We didn’t mention Delta” in the video, she said. “The idea that we would be opposed to Delta flight attendants getting relief is counter to the very existence of our union.”

The Trump administration has proposed $50 billion in loans to the airlines. A Standard & Poor’s index of major U.S. carriers plunged 20% at the close in New York to the lowest level in more than six years. Delta tumbled 26% to $23.49.

The company is the largest U.S. airline with non-unionized flight attendants. Unions including AFA have tried repeatedly to organize Delta attendants over the past two decades, and Nelson’s group launched its current campaign at the carrier in November. In 2010, the AFA lost a unionization election at Delta by a vote of 9,544 to 9,216.