Airline worker unions, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), have been told they have grounds to sue Delta over its attempts to seal its merger with Northwest by integrating both companies' employees.
Delta and Northwest Airlines merged in 2008, when Delta began a seniority integration process to combine its employees with those of Northwest. The unions allege the action constituted unlawful interference with employees' rights to choose their own representatives.
US District Judge Richard Roberts ruled that “No representation dispute lurks within the four corners of AFA's amended complaint or IAM's complaint. Neither are issues 'inextricably intertwined' with representation disputes presented here, because the question of which representative was certified was distinct and settled." However he found that a genuine issue exists for the courts to determine since Northwest workers were unionized and Delta workers were not. And that if there is no other remedy to enforce the Railway Labor Act, and the right of collective bargaining is unsupported by any legal sanction, courts can hear union cases, Roberts found.