America’s Most Famous Flight Attendant Won't Give Up on Unionizing Delta
Photo Credit: Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, wants to unionize Delta flight attendants. The company's workers voted against it three times before. Wikimedia / AFGE
Skift Take
Fourth time’s a charm? Sara Nelson is the latest union leader to attempt to organize flight attendants at Delta Air Lines, which has a mostly non-union workforce. If it’s going to ever happen, the pandemic will be the catalyst to give Nelson a victory.
One of the least-unionized airlines has swatted away three prior attempts from labor unions trying to organize its flight attendants.
But the pandemic is a different playing field, says the head of the largest cabin crew union in the U.S.
“After the Northwest-Delta merger, management said, ‘Give us a year. Trust us. You're going to like this better,’” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, said Wednesday at Skift Aviation Forum. “And, you know, people said, ‘Yeah, we gave you a year. It didn't work, and now what you're doing on the backside of Covid is you're asking us to do more with less.’”
Delta is an evasive target for union leaders, as flight attendants have voted down prior attempts at organizing in 2002, 2008, and 2010. A 2015 vote was called off amid fraud charges with the ballots.
The 2010 vote occurred while Northwest and Delta flight attendants had yet to inte
