In this election, the association
of flight attendants-Communication Workers of America (afa-CWA) is very concerned about its
chances for actually scoring. Like the last time, it is afraid that
it will lose, and fear is making it desperate.
While the afa-CWA claims to have submitted authorization cards for over fifty percent of us, it
does
not trust the flight attendants who submitted cards to actually vote for
it. Quite simply, the afa-CWA is afraid that many Delta fight attendants
submitted cards just to avoid harassment by its over zealous activists.
If flight attendants submitted cards just to be left alone, they are
not likely to vote for the afa-CWA. As the last
election proved, the afa-CWA's fear is well founded. We rejected it by a large
margin.
To try to win this time, the afa-CWA will once again use a favorite strategy to try to
increase its chances of scoring in an election. It calls its campaign strategy "Get Out the Vote, Delta." (GOT
VD!)
The GOT VD! strategy works like this. The AFA will
mail GOT VD! packets to
its activists. Once the activists have GOT VD! from the
afa-CWA, the activists then try to spread out and contact the rest of us.
What will the GOT VD! packets contain? Well to be honest, we are not really
sure. Unfortunately, the afa-CWA is not in the habit of mailing its materials to our P.O
Box. (We did not even receive a Christmas Card from them.) In
short, we don't GOT VD! However, we have an idea what it is
like to
get it.
These GOT VD! packets will contain materials to help the
afa-CWA Delta activists and the other airline Flight Pay Loss (FPL)
"volunteers" convince those on
the fence to vote for the afa-CWA.
For example in the last election, the GOT VD! packets
were tailored for each afa-CWA Delta activist. The packets would
list who was flying with each activist. This would allow the
activist to try to badger the hold outs into voting for the afa-CWA over
the course of the rotation.
Last time, we felt that this tactic was heavy handed. This time, we
hope that the afa-CWA will take the high road and let us make our own
decisions without sending out its radicalized myrmidons to try to badger
us into supporting it.
To prevent an emotional decision with long term consequences, we suggest the following: Look at our afa-CWA
represented peers in the industry. Do they have industry leading
contracts? Are they happy? Learn about the bigger picture from neutral sources like the ATA
Smartbrief. Look at the information on www.deltafa.org.
Read the company materials. Educate
yourselves so you can decide based on facts and logic instead of
emotion.
Remember that the afa-CWA developed its public relations campaign to trick you
into voting for it. GOT VD! is part of that larger strategy.
It is all designed to try to trick you by getting you to respond
emotionally, not logically. The afa-CWA does not want you to think for
yourselves.
Look at
information from all sources so it will be harder for the afa-CWA to
confuse you. If you are informed, they cannot use a public relations
campaign and pressure from its aggressive activists to trick you.
If an afa-CWA activist comes up to you, whispers in your ear, plays on your
emotions, and tries to give you something, it might not be good
for you, and it could be hard to get rid of it. One emotionally
driven decision in a moment of passion could taint you forever.
Just say no. Help keep Delta clean.
For an antidote to GOT VD!, click here.
