Delta Air Lines pilots have overwhelmingly voted to authorize union leadership to strike, should negotiations stall long enough for such an action to become legal under federal law.
The vote, however, doesn't mean a strike is eminent. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said that 99% voted in support of the authorization and that 96% of its nearly 15,000 union members within Delta participated in the vote.
The vote came nearly three years after the labor contract between Delta management and its pilots became amendable. Talks entered mediation in February 2020 and were paused in March 2020 for nearly two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mediated talks resumed in January 2022.