Greetings,

BARACK BACKS DELTA AFA ALLIANCE

By Melanie Seymour

MEC Communications Chair

Presidential candidate Barack Obama lent his support to the ‘Get Out the Vote’ campaign.  In a letter to Delta flight attendants he wrote, “The labor movement has played a critical role in the fight for justice in our society.”

This letter arrived on May 15^th, the same day Delta flight attendants, AFA members, and other supporters rallied in Atlanta in an effort to ‘Get Out the Vote’ to unionize Delta under the AFA banner.  Despite the pouring rain, more that 200 enthusiastic people were in attendance.  Our very own, Veda Shook,  Alaska flight attendant, now AFA International Vice President, was on hand to bolster the cause. 

This support is necessary given that Delta CEO, Richard Anderson, has demonstrated a lack of neutrality during this campaign.  In fact, Delta management even distributed an anti-union video.   They have gone so far as to encourage flight attendants to just rip up their voting materials knowing that a non vote counts as a no vote.  These strong-arm tactics have even attracted the attention of Congress.

“Exercising your right to organize freely is something I have fought for and I urge you to participate in the election,” Obama writes. Hopefully Barack’s message of strength will spark the democratic spirit a union represents.

To see the letter in it’s entirety, as well as pictures of our soaked yet smiling colleagues and peers go to the deltaafa.org website.  While there, send your own words of encouragement to our ‘brothers and sisters’ as Barack did.