I’d say there’s trouble brewing at United Airlines, but its no secret that the Chicago based carrier and its flight attendants haven’t been seeing eye to eye for quite some time. Today the airline’s flight attendants overwhelmingly rejected the proposed contract, which was backed by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) leadership.
This looks like it’s about to get ugly.
United Flight Attendants Reject Proposed Contract
United is one of the last remaining airlines who’s flight attendants have yet to ratify a new, post-pandemic, contract. Flight attendants at American and Alaska have both voted in new contracts in recent years (Delta is famously non-union), yet United and its flight attendants can’t seem to reach a deal.
Members of the United chapter of the AFA-CWA didn’t just reject the contract, the overwhelmingly rejected the contract. Over 92% of eligible members voted and of those members, 71% rejected the proposed contract. Ken Diaz, President of the United Airlines Chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), said this about the voting results:
“United Flight Attendants today voted to send a strong message to United Airlines management by rejecting a tentative agreement that didn’t go far enough to address the years of sacrifice and hard work to make the airline the success it is today. This is democracy in action. Flight Attendants need substantial improvements as soon as possible. Our union will survey members as quickly as possible to identify the key issues Flight Attendants are ready to fight to achieve in an agreement they want to ratify. We always said no matter the outcome of the vote, we will fight forward and that is what we will do with the power of 28,000 Flight Attendants and our whole union standing together.”
This response is somewhat surprising, considering the fact that Diaz and other members of union leadership were involved in negotiating the proposed deal with United. According to the AFA-CWA, the proposed agreement included:
- Industry-leading compensation
- Hotel, scheduling, reserve and other improvements
- In the first year alone, Flight Attendants will gain 40% of total economic improvements
- Plus, industry-leading retro pay
Apparently United flight attendants didn’t feel like this contract went far enough.
What Happens Next?
Regardless of what side of this debate you’re on, this is bad. For United Airlines management, this will be a massive blow to crew morale who have already been working for years under an amendable contract.
For the crew, the hard fought battle led to a contract that union leadership declared “industry leading”, which is everyone’s favorite buzzword in this space, but apparently wasn’t enough.
I can’t imagine that there is much more to gain from either side here. This was an extremely bitter battle between union leadership and United management before both sides came to a tentative agreement. With that agreement rejected, its back to the negotiating table for both sides and I don’t see how the AFA-CWA gets a better deal here.
It will be interesting to see how things play out over the next few months, though I can’t imagine that upcoming negotiations will be fruitful. In the meantime, I won’t be expecting stellar service onboard my United flights in the near future as relations between both sides will no doubt continue to deteriorate.
Summary
United Airlines flight attendants have overwhelmingly rejected the tentative agreement reached by management and union leadership earlier this year. Both sides will now head back to the negotiating table, though I’m not sure there is much left to give, especially given the current market uncertainty.
