Delta-Northwest merger
– new job cuts planned

May 19, 2008

Delta and Northwest Airlines announced an agreement to merge.

There is plenty of history of past mergers to see what comes next: layoffs and wage cuts. The steel industry in the U.S. was cannibalized in this way by mergers.

With each merger, companies go into debt to bring it about. The merged companies push workers to work harder while dumping many of them. They use the threat of layoffs to extract concessions from the workers.

There is no rational basis for the airlines to lay people off at this time. There are more flights than ever, they’re fuller than ever, they’re constantly overbooked and there’s no slack between flights for delays or cancellations.

The only problem is the desire of a few wealthy people to accumulate still more money at the expense of those who do the work.