MINNEAPOLIS — Chanting, “I don’t know what you’ve been told, Delta’s greed is getting old” and “Close the gap and it’s a wrap,” 40 flight attendants and their supporters rallied at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport July 31.
These members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA fly for Endeavor Air, a commuter airline run by Delta. The union represents some 1,600 flight attendants at Endeavor. They are demanding parity in wages, benefits and scheduling with Delta flight attendants, who are not currently organized in a union.
“While those who work at mainline Delta received a small raise amidst the tides of the airline’s success, Delta management seems committed to anchoring Flight Attendants at their wholly owned regional Endeavor Airlines in the depths of poverty,” the union said in a letter to Delta.
“The average passenger cannot distinguish between the service of Endeavor Flight Attendants and Delta Flight Attendants onboard their flights. They buy their tickets at the same website or app, checking in for their flight is exactly the same, the gates are Delta gates,” the union wrote.
Trina Johnson, local executive committee president for the union at the Minneapolis and Cincinnati airports, told the Militant that after Pinnacle Airlines merged with Delta it was renamed Endeavor, and flight attendants voted to join the union. Johnson, who has worked 19 years as a flight attendant, said that senior flight attendants at Endeavor make 45% lower wages than those at Delta.
“They must be on the aircraft 45 minutes before departure and start boarding 35 minutes before departure,” she told a Minnpost reporter there. “But we are not paid until that door closes, so if you boarded everyone but you sit there for three hours ,” she said, and “if you get to a point where you have to take everyone off, you just start all over again.”
A similar rally was held Aug. 5 at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.