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delta airlines
After CDC Change It Lobbied For, Delta Slashes Paid Sick Leave for Workers With Covid
"You almost can't make up a more heinous story than this," said one epidemiologist.
Dec 30, 2021
Just a day after the CDC delivered updated Covid-19 isolation guidelines that the company's CEO lobbied for, Delta Air Lines moved to take advantage of the new recommendations by slashing paid sick leave for infected workers, prompting immediate backlash from union leaders and public health experts who warned of such an outcome.
"Dear CEOs--your 'business needs' are not worth the life of a single worker."
Citing internal communications, the New York Timesreported late Wednesday that the airline's new policy "provides five days of paid leave for workers who test positive for the coronavirus to isolate" and "encourages, but does not require, a Covid test to go back to work, going a step further than the CDC guidance, which does not include a recommendation for additional testing."
"Delta's new protocols make no mention of whether returning employees should have improving symptoms, as suggested by the CDC," the Times added.
Prior to the release of the updated CDC guidance--which cuts the recommended isolation period for those with asymptomatic coronavirus infections to just five days--Delta offered 10 days of paid sick leave for workers battling Covid-19. Under current company policy, only fully vaccinated employees are entitled to coronavirus-related paid time off.
According to a company memo seen by the Times, "Delta will extend its five days of Covid-specific paid time off... by two additional days if an employee tests positive at the end of the initial isolation period."
Imposed after a spate of flight cancellations caused in part by sick crews, Delta's policy change vindicated earlier warnings that corporate America would readily exploit the CDC's less strict guidelines to force employees back to work before it's safe, potentially putting their health and that of others at risk.
"Shocking!" Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, tweeted sarcastically late Wednesday. "Delta has its protocol out. Doesn't even meet CDC's abysmal guidance. And immediately cuts sick leave pay."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, echoed Nelson, writing that "workers' safety should not be sacrificed to profits."
"It is workers who are key to passengers being safe in the sky like it is workers who are key to our healthcare and education systems," Weingarten added. "Respect them, don't squeeze them."
Facing criticism from worker advocates and outside public health experts, CDC officials have insisted that the new guidance is based on a growing body of evidence showing that people with Covid-19 are most infectious one to two days before the onset of symptoms and two to three days after.
But the Biden administration has yet to release a brief detailing the underlying science, fueling suspicions that the updated guidelines are motivated primarily by economic concerns rather than public health.
Some administration officials, including CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, have openly said the recommendations were updated with the economic implications in mind.
"We're looking forward, as I think everyone feels is appropriate, that, ultimately, when we're going to have to quote 'live' with something that will not be eradicated and very likely would not be eliminated, but can actually be at such a lower level of control--namely a control that does not disrupt society, does not disrupt the economy," Fauci said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
Federal officials' ongoing efforts to defend the CDC's policy update have thus far failed to satisfy outside experts, particularly as the Omicron variant spreads and the U.S. reports record Covid-19 cases. On Wednesday, the U.S. tallied 488,000 new coronavirus cases, shattering the previous daily infection record.
Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, argued in a series of tweets Wednesday that the CDC bears at least some responsibility for Delta's potentially harmful policy shift.
"Let this sink in--Delta Air Lines first lobbied the CDC to change Covid-19 isolation rules--got its way a few days later," Feigl-Ding wrote. "Then Delta proceeds to further dilute the new lax CDC rules. And then Delta slashes sick leave for workers."
"You almost can't make up a more heinous story than this," he added. "Delta will only offer five days of paid sick leave for Covid-19--if you are still sick and need to isolate longer, tough shit, says Delta--no paid sick leave."
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'Poison Pill' in Stimulus Package Could Cost Millions of Airline Jobs, Labor Leaders Say
In a letter to the Treasury Secretary Wednesday, Flight Attendant Union International President Sara Nelson and other labor leaders demanded the federal government ensure workers in the airline industry be protected.
Apr 01, 2020
Labor leaders Wednesday sent an open letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin demanding the White House refuse to exercise a warrant on payroll grants to the airline industry--a "poison pill" in the stimulus bill passed last week that Association of Flight Attendants-CWA international president Sara Nelson said could lead to millions of workers becoming unemployed.
"We need to get this right," Nelson told Common Dreams.
The letter (pdf), signed by Nelson, Association of Professional Flight Attendants national president Julie Hedrick, and Union of Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants 556 president Lyn Montgomery, claims that Mnuchin's power under a late-stage provision added to the CARES Act allows the secretary "the authority to take ownership stakes in the airlines in exchange for any funds that keep workers on payroll."
That reworking of funding to create a payroll "loan" as opposed to a grant, the letter says, is a provision that could lead to the government with a 40% stake in the airlines--effectively eliminating any chance of the airlines taking the available funding in the bill out of fear of public ownership.
"If the airlines were required to pay back the grants in full with an equity position of $25 billion, that would give the government the equivalent of a 40% stake in airlines in exchange for keeping workers on the payroll for six months," the letter reads. "This effectively renders the payroll grants a poison pill that will cost us our jobs and push us onto taxpayer-funded unemployment insurance--the opposite of what this bipartisan agreement intended."
Nelson, in a statement, expounded on what she said was an unfair standard for her industry.
"Grants are grants," said Nelson. "There is no value attached because there is not an expected return on a grant. Much like an education grant, the value is in the student who contributes their learning to society."
"The value here is a functioning airline industry, no layoffs, and 2 million people who can still pay taxes because they are employed," Nelson continued. "We are not aware of a single grant in U.S. history having a warrant attached. This is what you call a con. Not a grant. The old switcheroo. Here's a five dollar bill for free, pay no attention while I pick your pocket."
In an interview with Common Dreams, Nelson said that the 11th hour changing of the terms in the bill for $2.5 billion in funding for airline workers--flightcrews and airport workers--would present the industry with more than enough reason to reject the funding and turn to other protections.
"By putting onerous conditions on these payroll grants, the government is going to make them opt for bankruptcy," said Nelson.
Meanwhile, hours for airline workers are being cut across the industry--with workers at non-unionized Delta feeling some of the worse effects. Labor activist and former Delta employee Kip Hedges told Common Dreams Wednesday that the company's full-time ramp workers and ticket agents were experiencing a 25% weekly reduction in hours, from 40 to 30, and that "ready reserve" workers were seeing hours cut by 50%.
"Delta's action stands in stark contradiction to the intent of the bailout package," said Hedges.
According to CNBC, the cuts in hours are part of a pattern:
While hourly rates aren't declining, the amount of work available, is declining. In addition to asking employees to take unpaid leave, airlines are parking thousands of planes, deferring aircraft orders and drawing down on credit lines to shore up cash. Executives are reviewing the details in the aid package and the strings attached to accepting it.
As Nelson said to Common Dreams, the lack of hours available to industry employees due to dropping demand is causing a crunch for workers who would have expected to make up any shortfalls in over-time work--part of what she described as a longstanding problem in the American workforce.
\u201c#covid19 shines a bright light on the crime that workers have been forced to work more to make more since 1980 & even more in last 20 yrs. American workers count on overtime or 2nd/3rd job to survive. This #wagecrisis is colliding w/ this health crisis. Increase worker wages! #1u\u201d— Sara Nelson (@Sara Nelson) 1585587598
"When work goes away, there's not as much pay to go around," said Nelson, adding that unionized airlines have minimum pay and hours built into their contracts.
But Delta, which has successfully fought against a union for years, is in a different situation.
"Delta, without a contract, is taking measures right now to cut hours where a contract would preclude that," said Nelson.
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