Delta Airline and Union clash

Delta Airlines and the Flight Attendants union are fighting regarding the company's latest isolation policies for employees. They are debating whether it puts customers and staff at risk.

The CDC recently updated their isolation guidelines saying that people who are vaccinated and get covid need to isolate for only 5 days as long as they are not showing any symptoms. The previous recommended isolation period was 10 days. It has also been alleged that the CDC's updated guidelines came after Delta executives said that the 10 day isolation period "may significantly impact our workforce and operations". Within minutes of the updated guidelines, Delta updated their covid related sick leave policy to 5 days with just 2 more additional days. Delta also doesn't require their workers to produce a negative certificate before coming to work as the CDC doesn't recommend it. This move by the CDC was criticized by researchers as well. Delta which has over 95% of its employees vaccinated will require their covid positive employees to work through the 10th day of testing positive if they are not exhibiting any symptoms. 

The airlines' chief legal officer sent a letter to the Association of Flight Attendants- CWA saying the union had posted "false and defamatory information" about the companies policies and asking them to rectify it immediately. The union which represents over 50,000 airline employees is looking to unionize Delta employees as well. The union said that its statement had been "truthful and accurate". 

Over the holidays the airlines canceled thousands of flights due to bad weather ad because thousands of employees fell sick. About 3,000 of their employees recently tested positive. 

Source: The New York Times