Delta Air Lines pilots were scheduled to walk picket lines at Salt Lake City International Airport Tuesday afternoon in a public protest against Atlanta-based Delta's failure, so far, to meet their demands for higher wages and benefits at a time when the company is earning record profits.
Craig Mackey, a spokesman for the Delta pilots, said there are some 600 Delta pilots based in the Salt Lake area and he estimated that "dozens or scores" of them were likely to turn out to walk the picket line."It's time to restore the profession," said Capt. Charles J. Giambusso, chairman of the Delta Pilots' Master Executive Council, a unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, prior to the scheduled "informational picketing" outside Terminal 2 where Delta runs its local "hub-and-spoke" operation.
"(Delta) management must understand that pilots are unified, determined, and focused on one goal: a timely and superior contract that recognizes pilots' contributions to the corporation's success."
About 1,000 of Delta's 9,500 pilots were scheduled to picket Tuesday and hand out information at airports in Salt Lake and seven other cities across the United States.
Negotiations on a new contract between Delta and its pilots began last September. The two sides had hoped to have an agreement in place by Tuesday, the date on which the old contract, signed May 1, 1996, could be amended.
So far, only 11 of 28 sections of the new contract have been agreed upon. The major issues, such as pay, job protection and retirement benefits, are still on the table.
In Atlanta, Delta seemed unconcerned about the pilots' decision to picket, saying the talks are actually going well.
"Delta's pleased with the progress and so is ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association) according to everything they've said publicly," spokeswoman Alesia Watson told the Deseret News Tuesday. "The picketing is informational in nature and in no way affects the company."
Watson said it takes the airline industry an average of two years of negotiations to reach agreement on these union contracts so this one could have 17 months to go before it's signed. Which calls into question why the pilots are taking to the picket lines so soon into the talks.
"I'm not sure of the reasons for it, other than that they are able to do it now that the amendable date has arrived," said Watson.
In the past, airline pilots have have had trouble finding sympathetic audiences with strikes and picketing, mainly because their six-figure annual salaries don't jibe with the traditional union image of exploited laborers trying to better their working conditions. An airline cockpit is as far from a coal mine or assembly line as it's possible to be.
But pilots' spokesman Mackey told the Deseret News Monday that the pilots went the extra mile with Delta in 1996, making major concessions on pay and work rules after the airline had struggled through several years of red ink.
Now, with Delta once again making money, the pilots believe they should share in the profits.
"Delta pilots sacrificed both wage growth and working conditions to help the company earn record profits of over $2 billion the last two years," said Giambusso in a statement released Monday.
What do the pilots hope to gain by public picketing?
"I think it's a message to Delta management that they are serious and united as a group," said Mackey. "And it's a message to the public that there are issues of safety and experience in flying these planes."
At this point, Mackey said, there are no plans to strike, federal negotiators are not yet involved, and both sides are still talking.
You may reach Max Knudson at max@desnews.com