United Airlines claims that there has been “a substantial increase” in the number of flight attendants calling in sick, representing fraud and abuse of sick leave. As negotiations over a new labor contract continue, are flight attendants engaging in a sickout?
Sickout? United Airlines Concerned About “Substantial Increase” In Flight Attendants Calling In Sick
A flight attendant forwarded Live And Let’s Fly a memo that United sent out to flight attendants on August 1, 2025 concerning an uptick in the number of sick calls:
We are experiencing a substantial increase in the number of flight attendant sick calls across the system due to misuse or abuse of sick leave. While most flight attendants are working as scheduled, those who are misusing sick time are shifting their work onto other flight attendants and putting our operation at risk.
Section 13.C.5 of the JCBA allows the company to require an absence certificate when circumstances suggest ongoing abuse or misuse of sick leave. In May, an independent arbitrator confirmed this right and the AFA has communicated it to its members.
We can avoid requiring absence certificates if sick leave volume returns to normal levels.
While the memo adds, “No one should ever feel compelled to come to work when they’re ill,” it also mentions that the surge in sick calls “puts our ability to operate on time at risk and spreads work to the vast majority of flight attendants who work as scheduled.”
When employees start calling in sick as a group during a labor dispute, it is called a sickout, which is a form of industrial action or a type of strike that involves a collective, coordinated absence from work due to illness. While technically different from a traditional strike, it serves a similar purpose: to disrupt operations and exert pressure on management to negotiate better terms or resolve grievances.
Given that there is no pandemic this summer or other uptick in illness, it does seem suspicious if United is receiving a statistically significant surge in sick calls. The timing is suspicious: as flight attendants express anger over the tentative agreement (voting it down by a lopsided majority), perhaps many are sending a message to the AFA-CWA union that it better step up its negotiation efforts?
The consequence for flight attendants who are really sick is high: while obtaining an absence certificate is not an overwhelming burden, it’s not the sort of administrative matter you want to deal with if you’re ill.
John Slater, The Convenient Scapegoat
Parallel to all this, JonNYC shared a letter from the AFA cheering the retirement of John Slater, United’s Senior Vice President of Inflight.
The AFA-CWA sees Slater’s legacy as “inhumane” and conveniently scapegoats him with its own failure to bring flight attendants a contract they could endorse. Did Slater “constantly” question the “integrity” of flight attendants? I read just about every memo he sends out and I just don’t see it.
CONCLUSION
As United Airlines experiences a surge in flight attendants calling in sick, it is warning that more verification may soon be required to document illness. If flight attendants are playing games like this, it’s a true shame…these unhelpful (and illegal) antics will not win you a better contract.
To the flight attendants who read this blog: Is this a serious concern, or is this simply management trying to intimidate? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
> Read More: United Airlines Declares Victory In Campaign To Reduce Sick Leave Abuse By Flight Attendants
image: United Airlines
@Matthew – didn’t United experience an increase in sick calls over the same period last year (i.e. Summer when they are working reserves to the bone) which prompted them to break labor law around FMLA? Did you read his memo on this where he similarly accused FAs of lying about being sick? – seems like he questioned their integrity.
Maybe just maybe its not FAs being lazy but rather if they are flying more with less time off (and with regular IROPS) they are more likely to be sick… just a thought. In Summer with planes also carrying more pax FAs are more at risk of sickness too. On top of this at UA you’ve got reserves on 24 hour RAPs then working more long-haul flights than ever before – this all leads to more sickness in the Summer period.
For the second year in a row they have denied COLAs over the Summer so you also have the super senior crew (i.e. old) , who would prefer not to be working lots, now working in the Summer when operations are constantly in IROPS (which they don’t want to work in) so yeah, they may be calling out sick because they just don’t want to work which is abuse of sick leave but this is not some coordinated conspiracy – its just poor labor management (by John Slater). FAs are not salaried employees, they aren’t paid when sitting around airports being delayed – so yeah they are going to say they are sick when weather is hitting the North East when they’d turn up to just not be paid for hours.
Also on John Slater, I mean sure it is a dual failure of both AFA and John Slater that the contract was not endorsed by the FAs. To say he’s not to blame (at least in part) when he is the executive that the 28,000 flight attendants have reported to for the last 7 years is pretty poor journalism Matt. The FAs have spent more time under his tenure with an expired contract than one that was unexpired (it is literally the most important contract under his purview in value terms). In this time, United proposed items into the new contract that broke FAA rules (they later retracted this), FA morale and engagement hit an all time low and flight attendant retention is at an all time low – so what has he achieved really?
I agree the AFA is similarly responsible for the wellbeing of members so any failure for FAs is also on them and they should be held accountable for that but it takes two to tango and John Slater is their dance partner.
No American worker should ever expect sick time. You should work as much as you can, as often as you can, and for as long as you can. It is your duty as an American to make companies lots of money, and in return, you should pay taxes to the government so we can fund whatever wars AIPAC and defense contractors want us to engage in.
Not exactly, but close.
You missed making money for the shareholders, which almost all of us are.
Bottom line is sick time is abused in every business far more than it’s legitimately used. Just the nature of the beast. Normal healthy adults in America rarely get so sick they can’t go to work. Certainly not at the levels of time provided.
It’s why higher levels of PTO/ vacation is the solution, it’s an incentive to stay healthy so you can enjoy more time off.
Dave,
lots of companies would be willing to give you higher amounts of PTO IF they did not have to give you sick time or as much of it – but no one will agree to the reduction part.
Everyone just wants more
You tell ’em! Those Living Wage and Time Off After Giving Birth snowflakes need to understand how things need to be. How are rich people supposed to afford vacation homes and foreign sports cars if regular grunts aren’t working every day in abject misery and despair?
Inconveniencing the customers for industrial clout is never a good lever to pull. It’s a surefire way to erode public goodwill. If the FAs have entrusted their union to negotiate with management, then the negotiation failure is a union problem, not a customer problem.
There’s also the issue of expectation management. As the old song goes, “You can’t always get what you want…”.
The flight attendants have gotten screwed in a particularly glorious fashion by United. Their union – and I blame Nelson too. Just because Kirby has behaved like an odious swine in this matter doesn’t relieve the union president – has been either stunningly inept or complicit with the airline. In short the FA’s have few options. Kirby managing to act even worse than usual isn’t helping matters either. United needs to proffer a fair contract rather than that shameful sham of a contract that the company and union colluded on recently. United making matters worse by going after the victims in this is ill considered at best.
And what you did not consider is that the Flight Attendants have new uniforms and that several people are stating that they are allergic to. I have heard that even after several wash cycles that they smell toxic.. Is it possible that some of the sick calls are a result of the horrible foreign made uniforms that are making people sick? Just saying….. might want to consider this as an additional reason for the sickout?
Once again, management has failed to plan for increased summer flying with potential for major thunderstorms etc. which wreck havoc with any airline ops. Scheduling keeps adding flights here and there without the necessary infrastructure (i.e. crews, hotel accommodations, etc.). Add to that the inability to trade trips or have trips be picked up by fellow attendants creates the scenarios that many airlines currently face. It’s only a few who actually abuse sick leave but all of us pay the price. Supervisors know who the culprits are; they are just too scared to do their jobs and bust these few folks. At my seniority of 36+ years, I can barely trade away trips when I need certain days off–and I’m not even talking about weekend trips. Management instead wants us to clog our health-care system by obtaining a “note from home” detailing our sick absence. Absurd and very poorly thought out. I’d like them to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if they’ve ever “abused” sick leave. To paraphrase the Bible, “Thou who hasn’t committed any sins may cast the first stone”
Every summer, United increases the line average for schedules, meaning FAs are working much more than the rest of the uear. Couple that with almost daily thunderstorms and irregular operations and you have a mess. Many days, the company offers overtime pay to cover flights without crew assigned. I see pleas from FAs asking other crew to take their trips because they’re so exhausted. Reserves are coming into Dulles from one trip, only to have to drive 60 miles the next morning for an assignment out of BWI. Most of the domestic trips are horrible with long days and short nights.
The company also manipulates the coverage numbers each day that severely hampers a FA’s flexibility to adjust their schedule as their needs arise. As a result, you’ll see people taking sick days to protect their mental health vs constantly getting shafted by the crew desk. When a company refuses to agree to pay compensation when a FAs contractual rights are violated, you have a trust issue on your hand. Those violations are baked into the standard operating procedures all too often.
We have an increase in sick calls every summer. The company did force the Absence Certificate and threatened us last summer as well. The company has taken away the ability to trade our trips around on our schedules like we used to before Covid, so if we need to move a trip because we aren’t feeling well or have a family emergency, we have to call out sick. They leave us with no other choice. Additionally, we get sicker during the summer because of the demanding schedules, long and difficult days, so the burnout is high. It feels extremely disrespectful to assume we abusing sick calls. They treat us like we are robots and not humans