The airline industry is among the most unionized work forces in the nation, with 80-85% of employees belonging to a union. Here at Delta, the pilots, along with dispatchers who are represented by PAFCA, are proud union members. Efforts to organize other employee groups are ongoing. We remind our fellow employees that improvements often gifted to them are not due to management’s benevolence but rather because of our union’s hard-fought negotiations. The ability to join forces and speak with one voice is the very essence of unionism, and we wish our fellow employees well.

Last year at this time, negotiations were nearing the end game on the heels of extraordinarily successful system-wide informational picketing. Your visible displays of unity and solidarity provided our Negotiating Committee with critical leverage to reach an industry-leading agreement – one that has set a high bar for our peer pilot groups. Now, we are fighting to ensure proper implementation of our new PWA. As I stated in my August 16 Chairman’s Letter, we are closely monitoring management’s compliance with various contractual provisions and have already filed grievances where the Company has failed to abide by the agreement they signed.

Significant quality of life items went into effect on August 31. We have put the Company on alert that lack of IT automation for our new PWA provisions is unacceptable and not an excuse for delayed implementation. Delta pilots once again flew record amounts of overtime this summer to help the Company operate its schedule and post historic yields. Our contributions cannot and should not be given lip service. We will fight for the contract we negotiated. Half-measures and/or excuses that circumvent our contract will not be tolerated.

Should the Company fail to uphold its own core values spelled out clearly in the Rules of the Road, we will file grievances and escalate our communications to send a clear message once again to management: Always Keep Your Deals. In the meantime, please continue to learn, understand and help us enforce the PWA.

For those of you flying today, thank you for your professionalism in taking care of our customers and fellow employees.

Stay informed. Stay Engaged. Enforce the Contract.