Rather than hiring new workers to
attend to their airport lounges
delta is asking its salaried
workers and members of their
management staff to volunteer
essentially do extra work to
help clean up their sky lounges.
Now, apparently they're having
trouble finding enough workers
because the contractor who they
worked with to recruit workers
Couldn't find enough
people to work the sky lounges.
So as a result,
according to Bloomberg, the labor
crunch is hitting just as domestic
leisure travel starts recovering
from the pandemic sending a rising
stream of travelers into airports.
Delta sent the request through
internal channels to Atlanta
salaried and management employees
or headquarters workers who make up
the pool of eligible volunteers.
The airline said they're looking
for people who can clean tables,
restock the buffet You know,
do these jobs on
top of the jobs they already have.
In fact,
just come to the ATL airport
is what their email said for
a few hours to help with cleaning
wiping tables running food,
restocking, food buffets, etc.
The company said in its message to
employees, it Advised volunteers
to wear business casual black pants
and white shirts, and they said
they would be provided with aprons.
Are they not merciful?
Will they be provided with extra
pay since they're taking on
extra work that
doesn't fall under their job title?
No.
The employees won't receive any pay
or compensation for
helping out at the loyalty lounges.
So Delta's not a small company.
Delta of course,
I'm sure was financially harmed by
the pandemic, so in 2020,
it would make sense that their CEO
would see that, The pandemic and
its consequences would be reflected
in his pay.
But if you look at his pay quite
the opposite Delta CEO Ed Bastions
total compensation amounted to
$13.1 million in 2020,
including a salary.
$237,500 stock awards of $8.4
million and option awards of $4.1
million along with other
compensation and that's according
to a filing with the US Securities
and Exchange Commission.
>> Well, I'm sure he went down to
stock the buffet too, right?
Because they're called employees.
>> Yeah, about that.
No. It looks like he
didn't do that.
No.
>> So look,
I guess it could have been worse,
[LAUGH] Right?
If they at least do work for delta
in the beginning of the story.
I was like,
are they just asking people about,
and not paying them,
[LAUGH] If it is not a thing,
[LAUGH] right?
So, It's not like hey,
you know what?
You work in CNN,
you get some,internship or
something and you get to put it on
your resume and etc, right?
No, it's just Hey,
I need cleanup in Aisle five.
>> Yep. >> You want to volunteer
and then not get paid.
Okay, all right, but
at least it's their internal staff.
But like if you offered a little
extra on top of what
their job is,- >> Yeah.
>> That makes sense or if you just
hired other people for the job God
forbid and paid a little extra that
that wouldn't make sense.
This is not fulfilling work.
This is not like, hey, you
volunteer at the hospital and you
take good care of cancer patients.
No, we're not going to pay you we
show the boy we're not but
you're volunteering.
And that makes sense, right?
>> Yeah. >> there's plenty of
places where volunteering
makes sense.
>> Volunteer to clean up the scraps
of rich folks at the Delta Club?
>> Yeah, yeah,
that's exactly what this is.
And Cenk.
I mean, this isn't one of those
situations where something happened
to the staff, it's unforeseen
circumstances, someone couldn't
find childcare, someone got sick.
And so.
You know, you help your
colleagues out.
I mean, that kind of stuff happens
at this small company time to time
and you help your team out.
But that's not what's
happening here.
This is actually a very common
practice.
Within the airline industry at
Delta specifically.
And, it's not just a few hours of
work.
In fact, while volunteers
are needed at all times,
there's a limit of three days per
person per month But that's
three days out of your month where
you're doing a job that doesn't
fall under your job title and
you're not getting paid for it.
That's insane.
That's absolutely insane, and
this is common.
Delta for
years has sought volunteers during
its busiest travel seasons under
what's known as the peach core
program because this is in Atlanta.
Hire people.
Obviously, if you keep running into
this issue where you don't have
enough employees to do the job,
then maybe you need to hire
employees.
And maybe you need to entice
potential employees
by offering them decent pay.
But like this whole thing of like,
yeah, we don't want to pay more
people to do this job.
So Let's just explore are salaried
workers because they don't
get paid hourly.
No, that's not okay.
>> Look, if on top of this, they
then said but don't you still have
to hit your goals for the other job
you were supposed to be doing while
you were volunteering at this job.
She have to work twice as hard,
that would be beyond outrageous,
and God knows if that's happening.
But look, again, this is not okay,
at your company.
Hey, you know we had a birthday
party for Bob Let's all clean up.
Yeah, right.
It's not that No, no,
they're telling you to come
to Atlanta airport.
They do it all the time and
they're like, okay,
now you move those boxes,
you restock the food etc.
No, it's a real job, right?
Yes, on top of the job you
already have.
And so calling it a volunteer
is absurd.
On the other hand, This same folks
who named the Peace Corps program,
and I can't be the only one.
I'm comfortable with that name.
>> Yeah, yeah.
Use your imagination.