Minneapolis, MN - On July 19 a Microsoft outage took the world by storm. The mid-morning blackout of Microsoft services was an unexpected hit that shut down business as usual. Airlines in particular were severely impacted by this outage as it canceled and delayed many flights. At non-unionized airlines such as Delta, this temporary shutdown has exposed and exacerbated already existing issues.

As other airlines recovered quickly from the shutdown, the problems at Delta extended for a week. Crew scheduling and operational support at Delta is extremely low-staffed. Delta employs as little as 53 crew schedulers, in comparison to United and Spirit Airlines, which have over 100 crew schedulers and American Airlines, with over 200. In times of crisis the incredible workload put on Delta workers becomes impossible to manage.

The airline, without any capacity to even locate their own flight attendants, asked crews to fill out surveys to figure out their locations. Many flight attendants have shared horror stories of Delta’s mishandlings of the situation.

Flight attendants stated that they were evicted from their hotels after Delta couldn’t be reached to extend their reservations. By the time the company told flight attendants book their own hotel rooms, hotel prices had skyrocketed to over $1500 per night in some cities. Many flight attendants, especially younger or newer workers, have spoken out about not having the funds to front the cost of a hotel room and being forced to sleep in airport lounges. Flight attendants have been forced to wait online for over 12 hours in attempts to reach scheduling or hotel support to no avail. Many flight attendants were stranded away from home for days.

In these times of crises, with the company totally unable to function, Delta management continued to insult workers at every opportunity.

Delta management, rather than doing whatever was necessary to get flight attendants home, handed out baggies of laundry detergent to workers in the Atlanta airport lounge. The CEO of Delta, Ed Bastian, has been under fire because midst all the chaos he and several members of the board of directors flew first class to Paris to attend the Olympics. Even as many people spoke out about the clear inequality between a CEO relaxing in first class and Delta flight attendants stranded without a place to sleep, Bastian has still refused to apologize or offer any aid to workers.

Unfortunately, this response to the meltdown from Delta is not a surprise. It’s only one example of the ways in which the company disrespects its workers every day. It is treatment like this that has motivated flight attendants to push to organize a union at Delta, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

The Delta flight attendants have been up against union-busting tactics. In a statement in response to the meltdown, the Delta AFA steering committee said, “Even though operational metrics have improved, Delta Flight Attendants are still trying to recover and get home from the operational meltdown.

The statement also noted, ”While Ed was flying to Paris Tuesday night, crew were sleeping in airports across the country. Flight attendants expect an apology and accountability. We provided a roadmap to recovery and care for the affected crew members. Instead of taking ownership, Ed took a first class seat. It’s not acceptable.”

It is clear that flight attendants want and deserve more from Delta - they want real support when things go wrong, and they want bargaining power. Despite the company’s last ditch efforts, it seems like they will be unable to stop the power of their workers as they fight for representation and unionization.

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