The Red Dress

In the last day or so news has popped up of NWA flight attendants complaining about Delta’s red dress, due to the fact that it’s produced only up to a size 18. It’s worth noting NWA’s flight attendants are represented by a union (whose blue dresses run up to size 22), whilst Delta’s are not. I feel somewhat obligated to be supporting the idea of unions, but laying it out as weight discrimination personally seems rather unwarranted and ridiculous.

Size 18 is pretty hefty, simple as that – the equivalent of UK size 20 or EU size 48! I’m all for equal opportunity, but at some point weight does restrict movement, which matters in the air. Jumpseats are only so wide anyway. For us, the UAE is entirely devoid of unions in all industries, but we get along just fine, although there a few points that make working in the region a less desirable long-term career (nil retirement package etc). I won’t go into how the lack of unions affects foreigners in other industries here though (construction workers, anyone??), that’s a whole other bag of worms, can of beans, whatever..

At some point there will be a representation election at which the combined workforce will decide whether it wants to be represented by a union or not. The two groups also must decide on how to integrate their seniority lists.

I’m much more interested in the merger of NWA and Delta anyway. Up until now I had a vague idea that NWA and Delta were in the midst of some kind of union, or that perhaps it had already happened, but aside from the probably codeshare we will have with AA later this year I have no contact with US-based airlines really, and therefore limited knowledge I guess. There’s a decent enough FAQ on Delta’s website explaining the basics – namely that the two airlines are aiming to integrate as seamlessly as they can over the next 12-18 months, and that basically Delta (as the bigger carrier which had 14,000 F/As) has already acquired NWA, and now it’s just a matter of absorbing NWA (which had 7,000 F/As). Cool.

“Red is a color that attracts attention and someone, somewhere has made a decision that they don’t want to attract attention to someone in a dress that’s larger than a size 18,” says Patricia Reller, vice chair of the Northwest flight attendants’ union’s grievance committee. “I’m very offended by it,” she adds.

Pfffffft, puh-leeease!

I’m curious why I haven’t seen the red dress out in the world yet though. There were Delta crew stay at the same hotel as us in Milan (there’s two free internet terminals in the lobby, one for them and one for us) and every single crew I saw was wearing navy.. a touch disappointing – I’d like to see it for myself.. because it looks lovely.. at least on a runway!