Delta Technicians to Remain Union-Free

/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) today issued the following memo from Delta TechOps President Tony Charaf to the more than 6,700 aircraft maintenance technicians and related colleagues of the new Delta. The memo responds to the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association's (AMFA) filing with the National Mediation Board (NMB) yesterday to terminate its certification. Today the NMB accepted the union's request.

"Yesterday the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) filed with the National Mediation Board (NMB) to resolve representation issues among our Technician and related employees. Specifically, AMFA requested that the NMB terminate AMFA's certification to represent the Mechanics and Related craft or class at Northwest. This morning the NMB accepted AMFA's request and has revoked the union's certification.

This marks another significant merger milestone for Delta and its TechOps team. Resolving union representation issues has been on the minds of the men and women in Technical Operations in recent months and the NMB's swift ruling allows us to start aligning pay, benefits and work rules and implementing the already agreed on combined seniority list.

We have committed to a transition plan, which will be available on the TechOps portal later today. Let me share a few important details about how we will align pay, benefits and work rules:

-- Pre-merger Northwest technicians will come up to the Delta pay scales
and applicable license, skill and line premiums, effective with the
next pay period.
-- Union dues will be eliminated effective immediately.
-- Pre-merger Northwest technicians will be eligible for Delta's profit
sharing and Shared Rewards programs in 2009.
-- The transition to Delta's benefits programs -- including medical,
retirement, time off and disability -- will occur starting in January
2010.


As you know, the TechOps Seniority Integration Committee and AMFA partnered together to establish a fair and equitable seniority list. A subcommittee is now in the process of reviewing seniority disputes. A final list will be published soon. Our new AMT colleagues from Northwest can begin bidding on jobs as soon as Sunday, March 1. Additional communications about this process will be communicated to all TechOps employees tomorrow.

This is fantastic news for Delta and the new TechOps team. As I've said many times in the past, our flexible workforce has always been an advantage as we grow our global customer base. And now we have even more Airbus capabilities to offer our customers.

Thank you for staying focused on maintaining safe, reliable airplanes for Delta and our customers worldwide."

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