Delta Debuts Divide and Conquer Strategy

Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson announced plans to issue pay raises of three to four percent to Delta’s non-union employees while IAM-represented employees at recently acquired Northwest Airlines employees receive contractual pay raises of 1 to 1.5 percent.

The move by Delta is the latest indication of the tactics the airline plans to employ as part of a campaign to sow dissent among represented and non-represented employees before union elections occur at the combined carrier.

In a memo to all employees, but clearly directed at union-represented members at Northwest Airlines, Anderson wrote: “For those of you who have just joined the Delta family… we are not allowed to apply our pay policies until representation issues are resolved. So, in the meantime, you will continue to have the pay provided for in those agreements.”

Despite Anderson’s claim, there are no restrictions in the IAM-Northwest Airlines collective bargaining agreements regarding providing pay raises above the minimum pay rates listed in the contracts. As CEO of Northwest Airlines in 1999, Anderson himself unilaterally increased union members’ wages above the minimum pay rates listed in the workers’ contracts.

“We expect our members to receive wage increases at the same time and in the same amounts as comparable Delta Air Line employee groups,” said District 143 President Stephen Gordon in a letter to CEO Anderson. “I hereby clarify that nothing in the collective bargaining agreements prevents management from raising our members’ salaries above the minimum rates.”