In all my years of covering United Airlines on Live and Let’s Fly, I cannot recall ever seeing such a public and bitter war of words between the airline and the union representing its flights attendants. But is the union anger justified? And might there actually be a clandestine civil war going on within flight attendant ranks?
War Of Words Between United Airlines And AFA Flight Attendants Union
This is a very complex story and I’ve done my best to take the time to try to properly understand all the nuances to it and summarize it accurately:
- In September 2020, a flight attendant “caught” two colleagues with their masks down onboard of a flight from Washington Dulles (IAD) to London (LHR), in contravention of United’s employee mask guidelines and the federal mask mandate
- Rather than address the matter directly with the flight attendants or use the union’s internal grievance system, pictures were taken and submitted to United
- United investigated, which also included notifying the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) so that, per contract, they could also investigate and represent the flight attendants who allegedly violated the policy
- Jill Collins and Donna Matallana, veteran United flight attendants and AFA representatives, were chosen to investigate the matter on behalf of the AFA
- Per United, two other flight attendants came forward to report allegations of misconduct against the reporting flight attendant (the one who took the picture)
- Those allegations proved to be unfounded
- As United kept digging, it claims it found that the Collins and Matallana solicited “dirt” about the the reporting flight attendant and pushed for other flight attendants to come forward in an attempt to smear the reporting flight attendant
- Labeling this as retaliation, Collins and Matallana are in the process of being terminated
- The AFA sued alleging that United intimidated the two flight attendants, but the judge dismissed the lawsuit on procedural grounds, noting that the flight attendant collective bargaining agreement (CBA) required arbitration
- But the judge also added, “The union’s position would provide union representatives with complete immunity from discipline for acts in violation of the CBA so long as those violations took place while conducting union duties”
- The judge rejected such a “cloak of immunity,” adding the AFA’s solution would “permit union representatives to retaliate against flight attendants who take disfavored actions.”
- However, the AFA insists that “if management is allowed to interrogate [u]nion representatives on questions within the scope of representation, it will destroy the grievance procedure and our ability to represent our member” (i.e. United’s act of investigation constitutes intimidation)
- A date has not been set for the matter to go to arbitration
A Civil War Within United Airlines Flight Attendant Ranks?
There’s a dirty little secret when it comes to the seniority-driven flight attendant system at United Airlines and other U.S. airlines: it breeds tremendous hostility within the ranks.
Live and Let’s Fly covered this during the pandemic, when senior flight attendants at United were unwilling to make any concessions to their junior colleagues in order to save their jobs (a taxpayer-funded bailout eventually saved all jobs, but that was in doubt for many weeks).
> Read More: United Flight Attendant Union Sells Out Its Junior Members
But beyond that, I’ve spoken to many flight attendants about this and while certainly not ubiquitous, there is tremendous resentment (in some cases pure envy) that some “senior mamas” (their words, not mine) can hold lines and work amazing hours while they are stuck working reserve (they have no set schedules, but rather are sent where they are needed on any given work day).
Rather than adapting an “I’ll get there one day” approach, some junior flight attendants seek senior flight attendant attrition by ratting them out for taking the sort of liberties that many senior employees in any industry take. Sometimes this “tattling” is justified, sometimes it is not.
In its own memo to flight attendants, the AFA notes, “Flight Attendants face difficult times over the last several years which at times creates differences within the work group.” I read that as an admission of the hostility between juniors and seniors.
And from the union’s perspective, you can understand why it is not happy with the reporting flight attendant. Why weren’t the maskless flight attendants approached? Or the purser? How long did they even have their masks off? Why did the flight attendant not use the Professional Standards program, which encourages flight attendants to resolve workplaces grievances within the union?
The answer seems clear: the flight attendant wanted the maskless flight attendants fired.
However, retaliation by ginning up stories against the reporting flight attendant strike me as the worst of kind of fear and intimidation.
And that is the heart of the civil war: the issue is why a junior flight attendant felt the need to rat out a senior flight attendant to United. Was it because the junior flight attendant knew the concern would not be taken seriously if kept internal? Or was it because the junior flight attendant was simply upset about the massive imbalance between junior and senior flight attendants at United?
AFA Attacks United
Even with the backdrop that United could not have investigated the incident if it was not made aware of it by a flight attendant, the AFA has refused to offer any details about the case, instead lunching what can only be labeled a war of words against United:
“We can and will talk about the underlying issues here which are United’s punitive approach to problems and complete lack of respect for union rights.”
Meanwhile, John Slater, United’s Senior Vice President of Inflight Services said:
“United and the AFA have worked collaboratively through one of the most challenging times in aviation history and will continue to be advocates on our flight attendants’ behalf. I look forward to a good working relationship with the AFA, but our top priority will always be protecting our people.”
This is a war not just over this case, but over the fine line between interference and due diligence when it comes to United investigating its own employees. The union is not wholly unreasonable to seek autonomy in the way in which it investigates grievances.
But to many, including this author, it sounds like the the AFA is trying to cover up retaliation against another flight attendant. I hope that is not the case, for it will truly diminish credibility of the AFA and further divide flight attendants. No one should defend flight attendants being encouraged to lodge false accessions against a crewmmeber, even if the crewmebers was an anti-union “snitch.”
CONCLUSION
This is a complicated case with implications far greater than merely whether a flight attendant was retaliated against for ratting out co-workers who failed to wear this masks. The issue gets to the heart of who the union actually represents.
(Thanks to View From The Wing and Paddle Your Own Kanoo for their coverage and helping me put the pieces of the puzzle together)
image: United Airlines
Why didn’t they notify the captain of the non-compliant non-mask-wearing individuals, divert the airplane, call law enforcement to meet the ac at the gate and put them on the non-compliant no-fly list?
Can you even read? This wasn’t about two passengers, it was two fellow flight attendants. What a scum move by that scum flight attendant.
lol – just another case of “rules for three but not for me.”
It doesn’t matter if they were fellow flight attendants, they are still required to follow the mandate.
Not only is it a federal mandate, it’s company policy. Everyone is well aware that offenses can lead to termination.
How do you know they weren’t eating or drinking? How do you know that this snitch didn’t wait for the exact moment they took off their masks to eat for him to be there conveniently at just the right time? It all seems very calculated.
No one likes a snitch, but that’s not the issue here. The issue here is that AFA Union representatives invented / made up false accusations of misconduct about the snitch, in attempt to discrete him/her. According to the official court transcript available publicly online, no one got fired over the initial report about the mask wearing. The dismissals / firings were due to the retaliations made against the snitch by the Union. Again, no one likes a snitch. But, in this case, it was the retaliatory acts taken by the Union afterward that led to the firings. Everyone would still have a job today if the Union hadn’t invented false allegations against the snitch as their way of responding to the initial mask incident. The two flight attendants from the initial complaint would have disciplinary points on their record, but everyone would still be employed. Falsely framing someone, even someone who’s a snitch, isn’t a good way to win a court case. The truth always comes out in the end.
Thanks for your comment. And for those interested, the court decision is here:
https://casetext.com/case/assn-of-flight-attendants-cwa-afl-cio-v-united-airlines-inc
Basically, the union has gotten out of control. They are not here for the people, they are here for themselves. All they care about is themselves, just like bullies in school, they will push whom ever they want to get what they want.
Normal folks, like most of us would have carried on with our business and like a normal human person, just remind the person about the mask. But, no, I am going to be a snitch and get my way
Geez Karen. You people still are too dense to see thst your silly face diapers havent done a damn thing to “slow the spread”. Beyond the mountains of RCTs prior to the pandemic, you morons still whine when you still can’t prove your stupid policies make a deference. You are the people who should be banned from flying. You are clearly not an adult that is capable of indepent rational thought and adult behavior. Nevermind the fact the cases are still raging in areas with the highest compliance to your silly nonsense. Instead you would rather make my life hell as an asthma sufferer over your inability to research anything.
“The answer seems clear: the flight attendant wanted the maskless flight attendants fired”
If the FA knew that the union would do nothing to the offenders, going to corporate was the only viable solution. I’m normally a big fan of unions but not in cases like this where they act like the mafia.
I never thought flight attendants in the US, on the average, had a very high level of professionalism and good job performance. That is too bad because it wasn’t like that 4 decades ago.
Perhaps you mean they aren’t the servile, submissive and pretty creatures of days gone by? Flight attendants are no longer bound to sexist norms and have changed as has our country. We’ve become a bunch of rude, entitled people who no longer deserve the pandering of yesteryear. In real dollars, we also pay but a fraction of the cost to fly that we used to. Looking at the sloppy, inconsiderate and self-serving people we are, I’d say we only deserve the hello and thank you given by most Target personnel. And that’s likely too much.
Providing good service isn’t sexist or servile. Airlines around the world (and arguably in the N. America as well: AS, AC, HA) offer great services with FAs of all backgrounds. Mutual respect between employee and customer isn’t degrading to anybody, and regardless of what one pays for their fare, is something that should be the norm.
Sara Nelson is a cancer and cares nothing about the passenger experience. Hopefully this unethical and illegal retaliation by her senior union FAs will lead to her downfall. Way to go united for standing up to the AFA Politburo.
Your comment and this article are 100% correct. Sara was a Ual flight attendant briefly but wanted greener pastures. A lot of crew don’t agree with her politics. The internal problems in this article will never go away because of the negotiation tactics both Ual and Afa use to survive for their respective ppl. Lawyers on both sides know this. Some crew know this. Most crew are too passive to want to make things right but will continue to complain. Educating oneself on the issues at hand and being proactive would help crew. The problem is crew has to WANT to make things right, yes?.
To be clear, the “Matthew” above is not the author.
Agree 100% Hope F/As are paying attention.
This sure makes my head spin…
On the one hand, the original complaint involved two allegedly maskless flight attendants and United told the union to investigate, but then it went beyond the scope of the initial investigation and started poking around the two reps appointed to represent the initially accused FAs. That seems like a legitimate beef; I would think UA should have punted on this and told the complaining FA to go through the standard grievance procedure.
On the other, it also appears the union wants to have the right to harass and intimidate junior FAs for “not knowing their place”, and seems to be arguing that the FA who allegedly had her rights violated has no recourse if union members engage in misconduct during the course of an investigation. So UA seems to have a legitimate gripe there.
Ultimately, though, sounds like the union is butthurt that its dirty laundry is being aired out in the open more than anything else. Maybe they should spend some time figuring out why their members aren’t getting along and getting their house in order instead of sniping at management.
I think you captured what seems to be the situation. I was a UA F/A quite a while ago, but nothing seems to have changed. Though both Junior and Senior F/A’s pay the same monthly dues to AFA, the Senior F/A’s are by far the beneficiaries of AFA’s rule.
The senior f/a is SENIOR due to length of service. Once you put in your time, you get better trips. Once you’ve been here, 14yrs to be exact, we get paid the same amount of hourly rate. Is it too much to EARN your wings? I have EARNED mine. I’ve been through furloughs, involuntary and voluntary due to Covid. IAM & ALPA strikes and have seen my pension cut in have due to bankruptcy. I would rather ask, cream and sugar with your coffee and NOT, would you like fries with that order. LET’S ALL PICK OUR BATTLES, INTELLIGENTLY…just my humble opinion!
I actually wonder what the seniority of all the the F/A’s involved is. Many here jump to the conclusion that it was an sr/Jr conflict. Facts not presented.
the central character in this story is one of the “forgotten 5500”( his words) that were furloughed for a while.
Details?
The bottom 5500 fa’s on the seniority list were furloughed because of the covid induced reduction of flying. Could easily have been twice that # if senior fa’s didnt take Company Offered Leaves of Absence’s ( COLAS)
When you sign up to be a FA, you accept the crap trips, which build your confidence and experience. Like everything in a Union job, seniority is earned, never given. As for the two maskless FA, they know better and eventually the truth will come out, and the truth is always correct. The junior FA should have asked the two senior FA to put on mask if they’re not eating/drinking. Then made the complaint.
I work in a unionised organisation, indeed my role means that I work with union representatives on quite a frequent basis. We don’t have a seniority based system in place; these approaches may have sort of worked in the ‘jobs-for-life’ environment of the 1950s, but they are hopelessly incompatible with work (and life in general) in the present century.
Businesses that are still using such approaches (and likely contradicting their own proclamations on diversity by discriminating against younger staff) need to get on with the times. Any need to spend some money and/or make some concessions to unions in order to get them to agree to changes is almost certain to represent a solid long-term investment, avoiding a toxic work culture and other complications down the line.
You have NO IDEA what you are talking about and I quote, “There’s a dirty little secret when it comes to the seniority-driven flight attendant system at United Airlines and other U.S. airlines: it breeds tremendous hostility within the ranks.” That is bull. Everyone knows how seniority works. and the fact that the rules of the game are set it keeps PEACE so you don’t have brown-nosers jumping ranks, backstabbing ladder climbers and such. Seniority works. And in the cockpit it adds to safety. I have been in the industry 4 decades and while it sucks to be junior we were all there once and over time you truly earn your place.
I never said it wasn’t the right approach or the fairest approach. But I’m sorry, it does fuel absolute resentment and envy in many cases. I’ve written about it concerning AA, UA, and even non-union DL. I’ve received more first-hand accounts than I can recite. It’s simply not credible to dismiss that statement as bull.
I would like to leave you a comment in private. How do I do this.
https://liveandletsfly.com/contact/
SENIORITY…look it up.
It’s a privilege to be in any job that one enjoys, but most of the time, with SENIORITY!
In no way does senirity work. You end up with the highly performing employees kept down, which is wrong.
Senirity should only come into play if two qualified candidates are nearly equal. Then, the edge goes to the one with more experience. Otherwise, you ALWAYS put the better person ahead, not the most tenured
with all due respect, please come up with a non-seniority solution mr keyboard kommando
I never said the seniority system was the problem…
was referring to dereks comment, sorry for the confusion
…like the junior folks who “volunteer” for offline assignments like the office, trainers (or union reps) circumventing the seniority list to leapfrog up the corporate ladder to become “lords of the manor”? Speaking a foreign language or acquiring supervisory experience is a skill that can be acquired regardless of age or tenure but this shortcut to power is shady — and aligns perfectly with the company’s agenda.
Out of this process will likely emerge a body with stakeholders from UA, the AFA, and possibly independent professionals knowledgeable with the whistle blower process to fairly action and properly address the concerns of the whistleblower and hopefully deescalate the hostility that has manifested in this example. Obviously the existing process is not working. Similar to how more recently the federal judiciary launched new procedures arising from the concerns of law clerks nation wide who felt they were bullied, intimidated, and sexually assaulted with no where to go and report the issues.
How “junior” was the reporting FA?
I’m a retired pilot, but maybe my perspective will help? When I was a Captain on wide-bodies we’d have a large F/A crew and sometimes? Well, they wouldn’t all get along. Compared to a smaller jet, with only 3 or 4 cabin crew, along with the Flight Deck. Just saying that Company Policies are written, some rules are “broken”, but SAFETY should never be compromised.
Private message please
As a pilot I have never met another pilot who doesn’t like the seniority system. Everyone seems happy with it. I think this is because we have clear set timelines where a pilot has to retire at the age of 65. The old rule was we had to retire at 60, and when it got changed to 65, many people got upset, but we learned to live it with and moved on. I think on the FA side, the resentment come from not having a set retirement age, and there is no clear idea of what their seniority will look like in 10, 15, 20 years from now. As pilots we can see almost exactly our career expectation and plan accordingly.
I’m a FA that just started 30 years. Feel that there should be a retirement date for FA’s as well.
You may not know this but legacy United flt attendants loss our pensions during bankruptcy. Makes it a little difficult to just ‘retire’ especially if you are head of household raising children during that time. It took a lot of $$$ to keep a roof over out heads and food on the table. There was not a lot left to save.
This is a powerful point – the PBGC “substitute” was of little help.
Interesting choice of words in these posts; Bully, Mafia. Snitch or not, the retaliation by the union exposed it for what it is. The other interesting fact is the effort, energy, and expense to save the two FAs while no such effort was made to save the 5500 from furlough (see article by same author). With all the regulatory agencies to protect workers, I question the union’s true purpose and who it really represents.
Don’t forget about the part where the 5500 furloughed flight attendants still had to pay AFA union dues while they were out of a job.
NOT TRUE, when they were INvoluntarily furloughed. Those who “voluntarily” stepped off paid dues for three months, however.
Nice job on simplifying the very complex and nuanced events.
Yes, she should’ve just asked the flight attendants to put their masks back on. And yes, if that didn’t work she should have just gone to her union.
And yes, retaliation is never ever justified. My only quibble is your suggestion that the seniority system breeds hostility or resentment, whatever your words were. I don’t think that’s true with the vast majority of employees. However there has been an uptick of that since Covid. But as a retired 36 year employee, I can tell you the vast majority of people realize, as you said, “my time will come.“
this was one of many incidents this fa put himself in, allegedly taking pics of maskless pilots in the cockpit & of fa’s while on break behind a curtain, both incidents which do not req
uire mask usage.
I’m a longtime CAL/UAL FA. I am unaware of any hostility and resentment among my colleagues over the seniority system. Certainly, there is good natured teasing about seniority, and there’s some resentment over some of the mafias that form to keep certain trips entirely within a group of friends. I’ve read on this blog about the hostility before, but I’ve never encountered it at work. I think it is a fantasy of this blog.
If one wants to gain the benefits of seniority while still junior, it’s very easy. Work for the union or become an inflight supervisor (or even work COBUS). Neither status is hard to obtain and either position gives you more perks than seniority does.
There is definite widespread resentment and hostility toward AFA and Sara Nelson. There is definitely widespread resentment, hostility and retaliation in United’s inflight work culture. It’s a poisonous place all around. I absolutely believe that AFA solicited dirt, true or not, to retaliate against a flight attendant. The AFA doesn’t represent workers; it represents its own interests above all, including making back room secret deals that violate the CBA. I think the more union reps who are fired, the better. I don’t think current management is any better than AFA, but they certainly aren’t worse and they don’t pretend to be on the side of the flight attendants. I don’t see any evidence that this was a seniority based attack at all.
At last…someone speaks the truth…
Thank you
Matthew is being a bit ridiculous. On par with: “It’s reasonable for community organizations to charge for the security services they offer. But it sure seems, at least to this author, like Soprano Security Inc might have erred in burning down the business whose owner fell behind on payments. I hope it’s not true (even though it’s blindingly obvious that’s what’s happened)”
Unions serve important purposes. But at established and heavily-regulated businesses they are essentially an extortion racket with a certain amount of government bucking..
Their shamelessness when their dirty tricks are exposed is telling.
It’s also funny to hear bloggers seriously discussing why the reporting flight attendant chose to, quote “rat her colleagues out” to United.
I agree that masks are a theatre at this point, but it is federal mandate. Families were kicked off flights if their special needs child couldn’t keep a mask on. So why is everyone so concerned with the reporting FA not adhering to the unions rules of omertà?
I absolutely see a need for flight attendants to be represented by a union but I have to say that between AFA, flight attendants, and management, one actor seems to be actively fighting to maintain a culture of mediocrity and toxicity, and it’s not the actual flight attendants or management.
I was recently on a United 737-900ER (probably the most annoying plane for crews to work) from Denver to Seattle where there was a significant number of passengers from hell. During boarding, I witnessed two grown middle-aged women start bickering like 4-year-olds when a flight attendant asked them to back up for 2 seconds to give another passenger space to put his things in the overhead, and the crew had to diffuse that situation. We then ended up pushing back late because people kept standing up and walking around like hyperactive toddlers even as the crew made repeated announcements asking them to sit down so we could leave (it was a late night flight on the week after new year’s, so I don’t doubt that they were exhausted.) The captain also asked the crew to make a walk through the cabin thoroughly checking everyone’s masks before we went anywhere, which was probably another pain for them. Despite this, the entire crew was exemplary and still delivered amazing service with what they had to work with. They paid attention to little things, like taking the time to engage with the little kids seated in the aisle across from me and making them hot chocolate. I ended up having to take 3 seperate trips on United over the holidays, and every single crew I encountered did their best to to encourage a kind and safe environment despite the stressful conditions of delays and omicron.
My point in telling this anecdote is that I find it appalling that people who do their job so well such as this crew (who seemed to be made up of both very junior and seasoned people) are supposed to be represented by a union like AFA which evidently has a toxic culture and seems hell-bent on preserving a culture that is mediocre at best. It’s not a good thing for the reporting flight attendant to bypass the union and go straight to the company, but the attention should be focused on why this employee felt the need to do this. Whatever the reason, it is evidence that the union is inadequately representing all employees’ interests. This is even further corroborated by the union’s response of attacking United rather than holding its own reps accountable for 1) committing a blatant safety violation (especially since the initial incident occurred before vaccines and the union’s messaging now is that it’s unsafe even to do things such as pre-departure beverage service even after vaccines) and 2) orchestrating a smear campaign against an employee they are supposed to be representing because the employee’s actions were inconvenient to their interests.
this incident was not the only time the “alleged” jr fa turned in other crew members, including pilots, for mask violations. karma can be a witch.
My wife is friends with flight attendants and she hears stories about semi-militant anti-vaxxers and mask refusers among crews, folks with fake vaccination cards and bogus (religious or medical) exemption reasons to keep their flight attendant jobs and to be able to travel abroad. Supposedly, there are captains out there who say to their two co-pilots in the beginning of the flight “Nobody wears a mask in my cockpit!” (whether they have to wear one in the cockpit or not). Who knows, maybe the flight attendant who reported the other two had tried to tell them to put their masks on and had only been laughed at or even been told to go f**k him/herself by them. Perhaps the reporting flight attendant had tried to get the union involved beforehand in similar scenarios, and nothing ever happened. Do we know? If I had to work on an airplane and knew that colleagues had faked their vaccination cards — just as an example, I can’t say anything about the two FA who were reported in this case, I don’t know them — and refused to wear a mask on board, and maybe even offered me a knuckle sandwich in the parking lot, who knows, after I had tried to remind them about the masks, and if my previous attempts to alert the union about his had come to nothing, then maybe, I too, would make sure that some photographs end up with my supervisor. I’m just saying, from this article we don’t seem to know all the details and should be careful with assumptions. I can already see some raving mad United flight attendants who don’t know all the details either staging a witch-hunt …
Its OK. These unions will always be there to funnel money to the Democrat Party. They can’t just stay out of it….nope, they have to issue their “endorsements” and funnel money to “The Party”. Obey the party.
Any updates? Anyone know thw outcome of the arbitrations related to this case? Any updates on the appeals?
This kind of stuff is in the water with every flight attendant union, unfortunately.