Hundreds of Delta Air Lines employees gathered at the company’s Atlanta headquarters campus Monday for the dedication of an executive office building to former CEO Gerald Grinstein, who guided Delta through some of the company’s most difficult years.
Grinstein led Delta from 2004 until 2007 including a tumultuous path through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and harsh cost cuts — but earned the respect of many of the airline’s employees by fending off a hostile takeover by US Airways.
He was also a key supporter of Ed Bastian, Delta’s current CEO, and was instrumental in persuading Bastian to return to Delta after he had become disappointed in the company’s approach and left.
Bastian led a ceremony Monday morning to rename Delta’s 1040 Delta Blvd. building at its headquarters as the Jerry Grinstein Executive Building. A reception afterward included remarks by former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who have each served on Delta’s board in years past.
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Grinstein was a Delta board member when he was named in late 2003 to take the helm of the airline as it struggled under CEO Leo Mullin.
At the ceremony to surprise Grinstein with the honor, Bastian described Grinstein, who turns 92 on Wednesday, as “one of the people, that’s why Delta is who we are.”
“We’ve been through a lot of hard times, from a merger to the pandemic,” Bastian said. “Keeping focused on our people is what Jerry knew. It’s why we are where we are.”
After taking over a troubled Delta in 2004, Grinstein oversaw the company’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; cuts in jobs, pay and benefits; and restructuring. Still, he managed to win over employees when the US Airways challenge arose.
Grinstein transformed US Airways’ takeover attempt into an opportunity to rally employees behind a common goal of keeping Delta independent, with the slogan “Keep Delta My Delta.”
He is remembered for celebrating the successful defeat of US Airways’ takeover attempt by relighting the airline’s “Fly Delta Jets” sign at Hartsfield-Jackson, which had been darkened during the bankruptcy to save on electricity costs.
“He really rallied the troops,” said Joe Piller, a Delta reservations manager who was on the Delta Board Council when Grinstein was CEO, and joined with colleagues on the headquarters campus for the building dedication Monday. “If it wasn’t for Jerry, I’m not too sure we’d still be Delta Air Lines. We may be US Air.”
“When we went through some really hard times — bankruptcy, hostile takeover merger from US Air — he was the leader that got us through,” Piller said.
Delta is honoring Grinstein for the role he played in bolstering the company’s culture and its focus on employees, as it prepares to celebrate its centennial anniversary next year. Delta will be the first U.S. airline to turn 100.
But many of Delta’s current employees have no direct knowledge of Grinstein’s time at Delta. The airline cut tens of thousands of employees from its workforce through buyouts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as travel recovered has hired about 40,000 new employees in the last few years — about 40% of its workforce.
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Bastian told employees that for Delta to get to where it is today, “We had to overcome some tremendous, tremendous obstacles,” Bastian said.
“The secret sauce to this company are people, and taking care of our people, listening to our people,” Bastian said. He added that he “saw it crack during the bankruptcy and post-bankruptcy, how hard it was. People lost faith.”
“I just thought the company was not headed in the right direction,” Bastian said of the time when he decided to leave Delta in 2005 to become chief financial officer of Acuity Brands.
“I didn’t want to leave Delta. I was very distraught, candidly, about that. Because I love the company,” Bastian said. “But I just wasn’t going to work at a place that I thought was not heading in the right direction, particularly when it comes to dealing with its people as culture. The culture was starting to become broken, and the people spirit was really starting to wane.”
Grinstein also recounted at the ceremony Monday that “those were some difficult days.”
“Delta people wouldn’t wear their Delta T-shirts to the Publix market because it was a down period,” Grinstein said.
Bastian said Grinstein drew him back to Delta by telling him he could “be a key part of bringing the people back together, of designing the restructuring plan for the company for the future, and rescuing and saving the company.”
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Grinstein also hired Glen Hauenstein, architect of Delta’s revenue strategy, who is now the company’s president.
“Ed found the money and Glen had the brains to put it all together and get those markets,” Grinstein said Monday.
Now, Grinstein said Delta has “jumped to the leadership position of all airlines,” adding that he “couldn’t be more proud of it.”
To be sure, Delta continues to face challenges. It has been targeted by labor unions seeking to organize its workers, and some union organizers have accused the airline of attempting to intimidate workers from organizing.
Grinstein, for his part, said Delta has a “very different relationship from what existed at other airlines,” which are highly unionized. “Instead of having it as a collision of forces, it’s more, how do we both benefit together.”
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
A former lawyer and head of Burlington Northern Railroad, Grinstein was CEO of Western Airlines when Delta acquired Western in 1987, and he joined Delta’s board with the merger.
The Western merger is “the reason we have a hub in Salt Lake City to this day, and it’s why we have the presence in L.A. that we do,” Bastian said. “Western added a lot of scale, kind of balanced out the East Coast with the Southeast focus that Delta had at the time.”
During his time at Delta, Grinstein is remembered for turning down millions of dollars in bonus money as part of Delta’s emergence from bankruptcy, and instead putting that money toward what is now the Delta Care Fund to help employees facing personal crises.
And when Grinstein retired in 2007, Delta employees lined the streets of the airline’s headquarters for his farewell.
“You captured our hearts and revitalized the Delta spirit,” the Delta board council wrote in a memo to Grinstein on the day he retired.
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