Washington, D.C., July 27, 2009 – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today sent a letter to Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson asking for a meeting to discuss issues stemming from Delta’s merger with Northwest Airlines. The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Mr. Anderson:
We are in the process of evaluating the progress of Delta’s and Northwest’s integration, specifically as that integration impacts the crafts and classes of employees represented by the IAM at Northwest. To that end, we believe it would be in the best interest of all involved to meet with you for the purpose of discussing issues relevant to the process, issues such as your business plan for the combined organization going forward, the timing of your remaining steps to achieving single carrier status with regard to the IAM represented crafts and classes, the proper composition or definition of those crafts and classes at the combined carrier, and other issues which will help facilitate our determination of single carrier status.
I feel strongly that such discussion will also serve to ensure a smoother election process for all parties. In past mergers which impacted IAM represented employees, we have found such discussions to be very helpful in determining the stage at which a carrier will become a single transportation system under the Act.
We have attempted to schedule meetings with you in the past to no avail, therefore I must stress that such a meeting is very important to move this process to the next level.
I look forward to hearing from you as to your available dates for this meeting shortly.
Sincerely,
Robert Roach, Jr.
GENERAL VICE PRESIDENT
The members of the National Mediation Board were also sent copies of the letter.
The IAM is the largest airline union in North America, representing more than 100,000 flight attendants, customer service agents, reservation agents, ramp service personnel, mechanics and related airline industry workers, including 12,500 Northwest Airlines employees. Additional information about the IAM is available at www.goiam.org/transportation.
