Delta pilots pull ‘practice’ strike

A contingent of 275 Delta Air Line pilots marched through the country’s busiest airport, in Atlanta, on March 30. The angry pilots have been picketing airports around the U.S. with good reason. Delta bosses are trying to get an arbitration panel to void the pilots’ contract so they can rip off $325 million in pay and benefits from the workers.

The union has agreed to take $140 million in annual pay cuts in addition to the $1 billion they took in 2004, but that’s not enough for the profit-driven vultures at Delta. The pilots say they will strike if their contract is broken, which Delta claims will put it out of business. “You can consider today’s actions an exercise and you can stand by for the real thing,” said Lee Moak, the pilot union’s executive committee chairman, as he led the march, according to AP.

Delta pilots are voting on a strike authorization and the results will be announced after polling is completed on April 4. There are plans by the union to picket airports serving Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, New York and Los Angeles this week (washingtonpost.com).

Delta is trying to use the arbitration panel and bankruptcy court against the workers. The solution for Delta pilots and other workers would be to force the bankruptcy court to place the airline in the control of the workers, whose labor created the company and should be the rightful creditors.