Hundreds of Delta Air Lines pilots have warned of plans to picket, demanding better pay and working conditions. The protest will take place on June 30, 2022, just a few days before the Independence Day (July 4), a busy national holiday in the United States.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents more than 65,000 flight crew members across US and Canada, has estimated that its nearly 14,000 members across the US are currently work longer hours despite airlines cancelling thousands of passenger flights due to staff shortages.
The aims of the protest are to demand improvements in workload, wage, retirement, and job protection policies, ALPA said in a statement dated June 27, 2022. The union also outlined that pay levels for flight crews have not changed since 2016.
Jason Ambrosi, a pilot at Delta Air Lines and a member of ALPA, said in the statement that airline pilots are also unhappy with flight cancelations and the resulting chaos in their rosters.
“When delays or cancellations happen, the pilots share in our passengers’ frustration. As long-term stakeholders in our airline, seeing our operational reliability suffer is bad business and puts the Delta brand at risk.” Ambrosi said.
“The perfect storm is occurring. Demand is back and pilots are flying record amounts of overtime but are still seeing our customers being stranded and their holiday plans ruined,” Ambrosi added.
According to ALPA, the planned protest will take place at Delta Air Lines hubs across the US, including airports in Atlanta (ATL), Detroit (DTW), Los Angeles (LAX), Minneapolis (MSP), New York (JFK), Seattle (SEA) and Salt Lake City (SLC).
