Looking back on over two years of persistent organizing my travels have consisted of multiple trips to the IAM's W3 Center, Minneapolis, San Diego, Cincinnati, New York City, Savannah, and Washington DC, but until now I never ventured into the whale's belly— Delta's World Headquarters.
I hear about the size of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport each week in conference calls, but to hear something is one thing, to see it with your own eyes is another. Delta handles roughly 60% of the airport's flights with 151 domestic gates and 28 international gates covering six concourses and 5.8 million square feet of space. Planes take off at a rate of 237 an hour at the airport and Delta flies approximately 1,300 flights per day out of its humongous hub. These figures don't even include the new 12 gate, $1.4 billion international terminal scheduled to open in 2011. With five runways and the nation's largest air-traffic control tower (398 ft) the airport is capable of performing triple, simultaneous landings, something only a handful of airports worldwide can handle. By 2015, the airport is expected to serve 121 million people annually.
The world-headquarter campus just keeps on going. Block after block of earthy-brown brick buildings each surrounded by a six-foot wrought iron fence interspersed every ten feet with brick columns of the same color. Each panel of wrought iron has a Delta widget centered on it like some coat of arms. Several turn-style entry points are situated within easy access of the street and the checkpoint guards at the main gate are serious but friendly toward drivers and passersby. The property skirts the airport and has several parking lots that butt up against the AOA fence line. The campus sits on a slight rise in a prime location alongside the original Delta hangar (now museum) with its old glass doors and huge neon sign. Meticulously landscaped grounds complete the scene. I am indeed in whale country, at the gates of its guarded keep.
As I sit enjoying the tour that District 143 Vice President South, Gary Mobley is kind enough to give, we reminisce about the sheer size of our endeavor to organize Delta and the difficulty in doing so. I think about the grind all of the members are experiencing waiting for the government and the lawyers to sort out and reaffirm the National Mediation Board's (NMB) two, recent decisions; one to further investigate allegations of carrier interference in the Simulator Technicians election; and the other, a history-making change to the interpretation of the representation election rules to reflect a simple, voter majority as opposed to the 75 year-old interpretation of "super majority" where a non vote equals a no vote. These NMB decisions are a direct result of the hard work and dedication our leaders, our legal department and our members across the system have shown. These kinds of decisions are one of the many reasons we pay dues. It makes me appreciate grass-root efforts in general and cherish the American Way, as in petitioning our government when it, or corporations and special interest groups try to run our lives with the final say.
Three lanes in and three lanes out; we are handing out 600 flyers at the Delta World Lot, inviting Delta workers to stop by after work at J. Crickets, a restaurant bar close by. Here, we will answer questions away from prying eyes, something your average Delta worker is extremely sensitive to. Straddling the lanes are IAM organizers President Stephen Gordon, General Chair Sam Ellis, Vice President South Gary Mobley and myself. The f-bomb that I laugh now thinking of only gets dropped once, "Go @%#* yourself!" he screams as he swerves toward Steve.
Later that night we have a great turnout. Delta workers are asking more focused, knowledgeable questions. Not like before. As more time goes by, Delta's Corporate Leadership Team is finding it hard to keep all of their employee timeline goals hidden and this means that workers who thought "business as usual" are getting a strong dose of reality, realizing that their new Delta is actually the old Northwest. Just look at the Delta widget, now a modified Northwest Airlines compass point, especially when it's pointed 45° to the left like on the tails of our airplanes. They see Delta wearing old Northwest-management clothes and they don't approve.
They feel it too. Ready Reserve workers now bid after being told they would not have to causing conflict with their other jobs. Some are also getting 1,300 hours when the commitment has traditionally stayed below 999 hours. Either way all they have is flight benefits. No medical, no equal footing with the other work groups. This is something that needs to be changed in contract talks. Pitting us against one another is the fastest way to get rid of many "frontline" employees, because without a contract there is no definition of happy-medium between Ready Reserve numbers and other work group numbers and that spells trouble. Overall the night is a success.
All in all I believe most of us, both Delta and Northwest workers, think we deserve a fair slice of Delta's prosperity. After all aren't we the ones doing the lion's share of the work with the lion's share of the people (35,000)? Haven't we all given enough to ensure our company's success both now and in the past? I believe that in this present climate even the strongest nonunion holdouts are putting down their Delta Kool-Aid, refusing to drink anymore. And as I am dropped off at the airport to fly home to Detroit, I take one more look around and chuckle. I think of the movie, Say Anything (1989) and a line at the end where Diane Court (Ione Skye) says to Lloyd Dobler, (John Cusack) "Everyone says this won't work" and he says, "You just described every major success story." Here, in the belly of the whale I've see our future and the future is good.