The union for Northwest flight attendants has filed a lawsuit against Delta, alleging the airline will violate federal law with the way it says it plans to merge the seniority lists of Northwest and Delta attendants.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA filed the lawsuit Nov. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia jointly with a Delta flight attendant, Marianne Bicksler. Delta’s attendants are not unionized.

The decision to file the lawsuit stems from a letter the AFA received Nov. 11 from Michael Campbell, Delta’s executive vice president of human resources and labor relations, to “initiate the seniority integration process.”

Campbell said that integration would be done “in accordance with the commitment made by Delta and the recently enacted federal law which requires the fair and equitable integration of seniority lists when two airlines combine and the combining groups have different representation status.”

The union, however, argues that’s a misunderstanding or misstatement of the law. Delta has to wait, it said, for a National Mediation Board finding that a single carrier exists and a representation election to determine the bargaining representative for the combined Delta-Northwest flight attendant work force.

If the AFA wins the representation election at the post-merger Delta, it said, than AFA’s seniority integration procedures will apply, and those are based on the date of hire, not a vaguely defined “fair and equitable” standard. The AFA argues a “date of hire” standard is a fairer method that “serves the members who have accrued years of vested service.”

Photo: Northwest