Fired Delta worker fights to get his work back again
Delta baggage handler wants his occupation back again
Kip Hedges, the Delta baggage handler who was fired for talking out about minimal pay, wants his task again.
Hedges told CNNMoney that he submitted an attraction with Delta’s human resources division Thursday inquiring to be reinstated.
He ideas to wait around a pair of weeks for a reaction, and he is prepared to file a wrongful termination lawsuit if the airline refuses to give back his job.
For 26 several years, Hedges has loaded and unloaded Delta planes at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. But last week, he was fired for comments he created in an on-line online video about the airline’s low wages for its employees.
In the video clip, Hedges explained numerous Delta workers make considerably less than $ fifteen an hour and that “a great deal of the greater paid staff also understand that the base has to be elevated or else the best is going to slide as well.”
Hedges stated that Delta supervisors on Dec. two informed him he was currently being fired for producing “disparaging” comments about the organization.
“Delta needs all workers to satisfy firm performance and conduct standards,” the airline mentioned in a statement. “This contains upholding our main values of regard and honesty in any communications relating to Delta.”
Hedges mentioned he can not think of any reason why Delta would fire him for his functionality or perform.
“You would be hard-pressed to uncover a one 1 of my coworkers on the ramp or a supervisor that wouldn’t want to operate with me,” he explained. “I actually satisfaction myself on my perform ethic and my conduct.”
Alternatively, Hedges thinks his part in aiding to unionize airport workers is the actual reason Delta wanted him out.
“Maybe they feel that firing a prominent advocate for the union would chill the motion to manage,” he said.
Baggage handlers had been unionized prior to the merger of American Airways and US Airways in 2013, when the campaign to type a union failed by 300 votes.
Now, with the labor motion gaining steam in Minnesota and numerous other states, Hedges stated Delta is turning into more anti-union.
He pointed out that Delta was part of a lawsuit filed by numerous U.S. airways in November to block pay out boosts for airport employees at Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport .
The business stated it “invitations healthy, constructive dialogue across all regions of its enterprise.”
Hedges said he is been confused by the outpouring of assist from fellow baggage handlers, union leaders and nearby politicians like Rep. Keith Ellison.
A petition filed on Coworker.org demanding that Hedges be rehired has gained more than 1,500 signatures.
In the meantime, Hedges explained he programs to keep associated in the fight to unionize airport workers in Minnesota.
“I am not likely to stroll away from this now,” he said. “It’s way too important for a whole lot of individuals.”