Add these Delta employees to 'crybaby' roster

Add these

Delta employees to 'crybaby' roster

Delta Airlines has always prided

itself in saying that it take care of its employees and also that its

work force will always be the highest paid in the industry.

I recently attended a personnel

conference in which management reinstated that Delta's policy is that

the salaries of all the employee work force are second to none in the

industry. However, members of the management team proceeded to say that

Delta's frontline customer service personnel are currently receiving $59

less than what American Airlines frontline customer service agents receive.

It was never mentioned that American Airlines employees also received

a profit-sharing bonus check in conjunction with the most recent salary

increase.

The panel of directors was

told and reminded that Delta's pilots received what they cried for and

also that during the middle of the pilots' negotiation (at the worst time)

our CEO gladly accepted a 6.6 percent salary increase. At that moment

we asked the management team where was our share of the pie. Their reply

was that this is a time of money restraint and that our current salary

would be reviewed toward the end of this calendar year. I was personally

advised that Delta no longer had any additional money left to share because

all of it had been spent or invested.

It is a known fact that between

1997 and 2000 Delta Airlines earned $4 billion dollars of net income.

In addition, for five consecutive years Delta has produced operating margins

in excess of 10 percent, the best of the top six airlines. Delta ended

current year 2000 with an 8 percent unit cost advantage to the industry,

and last year Delta had the highest net income of any airline in the world.

Who is Delta trying to fool? It seems to me that what is good for the

goose should also be good for the gander.

We deserve a competitive and

decent salary increase now, and please, do not play tricks, do not insult

our intelligence. In the past we never had to beg the company for a fair

compensation and this is now becoming a routine. After 10, 20 or 30 years

with the company, it is insulting to hear management say, If you don't

like it, the door is open for you to leave. Can't they see that many skilled

and loyal employees are leaving, and many more contemplating to leave?

Can't Delta realize that we are only trying to make a decent living?

Unions have been knocking at

our doors. If they succeed in their effort, top management will be the

only ones to be blamed; however, it wouldn't hurt them personally since

all of them have already pocketed plenty. Sharing the pie with every employee

is the least they can do to avoid future and permanent damage to our morale.

It is getting to the point that the only effective voices that seem to

get the job done are the unions.

It is our turn to act like

crybabies just like our fellow pilots did. However, we cry because we

are in the lower salary bracket. Our fellow pilots cried to add more money

to their already fat pockets.

A silent majority member

[Name withheld at the writer's

request.]