Delta Organizing: This Drive Is Internal As Well As External
May 5, 2008 (Please note this is a reposting from DL143's website)

You will hear this phrase many times throughout this drive so get use to it because that's exactly what it is. Up to the point when all of us will cast our vote for Union representation, everyone must truly understand that this drive is a drive for our existence as a Union-represented group by the IAM.

Since April 16, 2008, when District 143 was assigned the task of the Delta organizing drive our members at some locations have stepped up their efforts on their own within their local lodges and organizing committees to ensure this drive is a successful one. From the west coast in LAX to the east coast in LGA, JFK, and EWR, our brothers and sisters have gotten active in communicating with the Delta employees in all work groups by passing out cards and informational flyers on key issues that will affect them as a working group for this so called global airline that those executive teams say they will bring to our communities with many promises and scenarios of good times.

This organizing drive is two-part: internal and external. As we continue our efforts organizing those work groups at Delta, we must also look within our own groups and make sure that every brother and sister understands what is at stake and really understands what is at hand. We must make sure that those members who may have a different opinon must fully understand that every vote will count, and one should be completly clear that the blanket of Union protection cannot be sacrificed in these times within our industry. All of us have sacrificed too much throughout these times, and those sacrifices have not been made without a fight to keep what we have spent years negotiating for.

Every brother and sister, ESE, CSA, Res, Clerical, needs to be talking. If you know someone at Delta, you need to make a call or send an e-mail. Talk about the issues facing us and ask yourself if you could possibly put your fate and future in the hands of executives that have no clue what us working people are feeling in these times.

The bottom line here today at NWA is that every one of us within the IAM has now become an organizer. We must all become active within our local lodges with this drive and be communicating with those Delta employees that may be at our locations in all groups. I say that if the NWA/DAL merger brings a "global airline," then why not bring to them a "global union" that will give each of our work groups a voice as one that will protect our jobs and benefits that all of us have worked so hard for. Everyone is now an organizer.