With time running out for the labor-friendly Biden Administration, flight attendant contract negotiations at United Airlines remain stalled with the two sides far apart and the union now resorting to petty name-calling.
Report: Contract Negotiations At United Are Not Progressing Toward A Deal, With Flight Attendants Calling CEO Scott Kiby “Greedy” And “Vicious”
A report suggests that federal mediators have made a “curveball decision” to suspend contract negotiations for the remainder of 2024. If true, that leaves flight attendants very little time to agree on a new deal prior to the incoming Trump Administration.
Disagreement remains on ground duty (boarding) pay, retro pay, ratification bonus, and inflation indexing. The AFA wants a 28% immediate raise and a 4% annual raise in perpetuity. United has scoffed at such an open-ended agreement.
Now, the AFA plans a “day of action” on December 19, 2024, telling flight attendants:
We refuse to let Scott the greedy Grinch steal our holiday wishes, do away with the concessions and quit being cheap and vicious.
Greedy grinch? Vicious?
I suppose it plays to the base…
But with a new administration coming in January that may fill the National Mediation Board (NMB) with more business-friendly board members, time is quickly running out for a new contract. In fact, it may already be too late.
In light of the NMB’s decision to suspend contract negotiations for the remainder of the year, it is looking more likley than ever that 1.) a contract is still far off and 2.) flight attendants will find a steeper hill to climb in finalizing a new contract.
While the union warns of CHAOS (“Create Havoc Around Our System”), that represents more targeted interruption as opposed to a widescale strike. Even that is only permitted with the permission of the NMB and this week’s news and the longstanding reluctance to declare an impasse may lead to lower wages for United flight attendants than negotiators have worked for years to secure.
It looks like the customers will be the ones to pay the price in the end unfortunately. We did give them the option to come to the table in good faith. Discussions have already been started within our workgroup
Have you learned nothing from fiasco that is American Airlines. Involving customers in your internal dispute with your employer will only lead to customers leaving United Airlines for other carriers. You decided to work for a union carrier which i s100% okay but now let the union do the job you hired them to do and leave customers out of this dispute. As someone who flies multiple carrier but mainly United and Delta I can say United FA’s have gotten better in recent years I would hate to see you all revert back to the mean, nasty attitude, lazy flight attendants of old. While I agree you all are more than due a substantial pay raise the last thing you want to do is resort to the tactics American Airlines flight attendants resorted to which did cost American passengers and some of those passengers will never come back to American.
Good, their demands are ridiculous given all they do is serve our coke cans and play on there phones the whole flight.
The higher quality FA demands are fair , considering the lower-level of average passengers .
When you’re having a heart attack inflight we’ll be sure to give you a Diet Coke. Did you want that with ice?
This comment is the reason you will not win this fight. How could anyone trust a flight attendant to perform their duties?
Mostly you will get on the PA and ask if there is a Doctor on board. Other than that you will clutch your PA and panic whilst holding a Diet Coke.
Someone is a jerk this morning.
It’s a very complex and demanding profession.
I have been in this profession for 43 years. It was not complex or demanding and I loved every year of it. It is never was a high paying job but the longer you stayed the better it became In fact if you stayed long enough you can get your Social Security and your PBGC pension and still work a few trips with good layover somewhere once a month. I always said stay and save your money it will get better..
I can relate to being poor and wanting a raise but this is over the top. Guaranteed 4%? Really? If someone wanted to make money I would suggest any other career than a flight attendant. I never got a guaranteed 4% raise and couldn’t even imagine it.
I appreciate everything that they do. I’ve met many wonderful FAs. But just stop. Either do your job or, if you’re unhappy, get another one. You had two to six weeks of training and you’re young. The CEO worked for a lifetime and crawled his or her way to the top over decades. You’re not even in the same ballpark much less city.
Praising the CEO on bended knee and ignoring the downstairs help … otherwise stated ‘kissing-up and stomping-down’ .
Kirby’s PR-written letter to Trump exposed him as an empty-of-substance kiss-up .
Apparently you don’t know anything about any current US airlines CEO. None of them “crawled their way” anywhere. Kirby is a former USAF reject and has been holding a grudge ever since. When he was at AA he wanted to gut the regionals since he was jealous of the pilots.
Let’s not forget that 4% ask is in perpetuity!
This 4% is an ask to prevent the current management tactic of never negotiating. UA is the ONLY major airline to not sign a new contract with their flight attendants. UA flight attendants pay position is in line with other carriers.
Kirby is clueless . I would approach the FAs with the “Alert method” , and everything would be resolved tout de suite.
Apparently the Flight Attendants at UA believe in working for Santa Claus. Someone needs to tell them they are being very bad elves.
Truly causing CHAOS the travel weekend before Christmas makes a very bad elf
Both the AFA and Kirby are completely out of touch with what flight attendants want in a new contract. I suspect any contract the union negotiates will be immediately voted down. I see the Trump administration as a positive change. Perhaps the new DOGE will spur the mediators on to doing their job with more speed and efficiency.
Once Trump is in power I hope he gives all these useless activist FAs a kick right up the bum.
“Once trump is in power..” I would hope any president would have more important things to do that plan retribution against a few flight attendants, like vetting his cabinet picks so he has fewer with sexual assault allegations in their past.
Oh, it won’t be retribution per se – it will just be the type of people he appoints to NMB.
I and many other flight attendants qualify for public assistance. Our expectations are NOT unrealistic to make a livable wage. Become rich? Not my goal, just fair pay.
In all fairness, you took the job knowing what the pay was. Flight attendants have never been known to be high paying job. Perhaps if you aren’t making a living wage, as you claim, you could start looking for another job?
United has the nastiest FA’s in the industry.
They are just horrible rude people. United should go broke!!
Double the pay if good flight attendants at great airlines!
It continues to blow my mind how fast people with no personal connection to any area of knowledge are to suddenly be experts in absolutely every area of knowledge to be had. The responses to this particular (badly written) opinion piece highlight (1) how very unaware of what flight attendants actually do and (2) what flight attendants actually make in their jobs.
When people see something like “Flight attendants start at $27 per hour” (which is actually true for flight attendants at certain airlines), they immediately think that they’re making $1,080 per week/$56,160 per year. It is evident that they’re not aware that airline crew members are not paid like traditional workers who earn an hourly wage for all time spent at work. Airline crewmembers are paid per FLIGHT HOUR. At most carriers, this means generally from the time the aircraft doors are closed after boarding until they are opened again upon arrival. Yes, you read correctly that they are not paid for time in between flights while being required to be in uniform, moving from one aircraft to another in the terminals, and during boarding/deplaining.
“Full time” status at most airlines is anywhere from 72-75 flight hours PER MONTH. So a flight attendant starting at $27 per hour is actually earning $2,025 per month/$24,300 per year. (Per diem is not income as it is designed to cover minimal costs per day while out of town and away from their homes to make food.) The airlines benefit from paying their crews this way because it makes the flight attendants look greedy to the public during contract negotiations (making it difficult to get public support) and it helps airlines to attract people to the profession not realizing how very little they’ll actually be paid.
Never in the history of the airline industry has there been insane levels of turnover in the profession. It is easy for an ignorant person to say, “Get another job.” The problem is that without flight attendants, there can be no flight as the law requires their presence on board staffed according to the number of passenger seats on board. Until the airlines pay their employees a reasonable wage that one can qualify for a decent 1 bedroom apartment in an apartment community that requires applicants to earn three times the rate of rent without sharing that bedroom with 2-3 other people.
It is time for authors of misguided aviation “news” pieces (such as this one) by Matthew Klint, Gary Leff along with the ignorant members of the public to GET EDUCATED and GET REAL.
True . I’ve known even more important factors for years , including that the management treats them as customer- servant employees for advertising purposes . That is why I support the FAs . They ought not be advertised as servants for the passengers . They are employees with monetary needs . If Kirby used the “Alert method” , he could change the entire situation .
Meanwhile the airlines get millions of applications a year. There are plenty of Starbucks Barista’s happy to take your job.
You cherry picked your pay and hours. You alleviated what the seniors make. You over hyped the duty and work (yawn).
Don’t worry, there are plenty of good people that will take your position. And I hope they do. Especially the senior positions who need to retire and play on their phones at home.
You came to the wrong place for ignorant sympathy. We know better.
Time to be more realistic or the worst Trump outcome will happen
This is the never ending saga. AA inks a deal, UA starts a fight. They’ll ink a deal in 2 years, then DL will unionize. While I don’t see eye-to-eye with FAs on how I think service should go, I agree they should be paid fairly. What I don’t understand is why so many people desire to join a career where they’re basically fighting with management in perpetuity over contracts that were in place when they signed on.
I think this “us vs. them” mentality exemplifies why US carriers will always be subpar, and their employees less happy.
Let em’ strike if it came to that. It’s just dumb to have them set up under the railway act but yet Boeing, UPS, and the UAW are able to strike at discretion. I haven’t heard anyone kicking rocks about Boeing strike. Get over it!
“Get over it.”
Sounds as if it comes from a basic economy ticket holder complaining about the seat they were assigned like it’s my fault, or my fault for there not being enough overhead bin space (which isn’t part of that ticket and isn’t my call), or my fault for being catered with specific items I have no control of the quantity of, or even the type.
You should check out the massive turnaround the airlines (united in specific) had the last few years when they targeted people in their early 20s. The thousands they let in quickly quit. Loads of us still around. Because a whole lot of people want the job until they realize they’re working 13 hour days (mostly) and getting paid around 5 hours for that day, not being provided food if you have sit time over 1hr 1/2 or 2+ hours in between flights. If you do, it’s a domestic first class meal. That’s it. And that’s if catering is aware. Many times a delay eats up that time and you get nothing. 10-17 hour layovers that start when you leave the airplane (not when we do) and end when we are required to be on the plan (not when we have to leave the hotel).
All while being broke ($1400 a month after taxes and including per diem when I started) for a few years living in an expensive city. Getting called constantly at 1am for a 5am check in so you can get a fkng coke and complain about service when you paid for traveling a few hours instead of driving 10+ or more.
We have to be there all hours of the day, any day of the year.
The light at the end of the tunnel is with seniority. And with seniority comes dedication to stay. Dedication to stay won’t come without pay.
Unless any job would start a person out making decent money, you will continue to see this model.
The seniority absolutely won’t transfer over. So.the longer you’re in, the longer you plan to stay. The more you get settled with making it your life.
Would any of you just get another job if none of your tenure/experience followed you and commanded a higher rate than the lowest pay to start? Absolutely not. But dipping and dodging attitudes and trying to make people’s day better than the nightmare getting through security, and to the gate, and to a delayed airplane you plan on lightning rodding some person on an airplane that you only see as a giver of coke, then by all means! Get yourself a pair of wings and join this cakewalk of crying snowflakes.
It’s all sunshine and fkng rainbows all the time.
Especially when sht goes wrong and your 12 hour duty day gets extended without change from 9:30pm to 3:40am, you’re still in the LA airport trying to get your schedule updated with a layover, you finally get one but don’t have transportation. Now it’s 4am. You get to the hotel at 4:40am, and your schedule says your layover started at 9:30pm the previous day and they expect you back at 11am ready to go.
This isn’t a one off occurrence either. You’ll find loads of fk your sleep schedule stories all throughout. And you have to manage not losing your sht on people who test every bit of what you do and chalk you up as givers of coke.
Drive your car, buddy
Have you considered that the high turnaround among young new hires might be due to the contracts negotiated by the unions that make life miserable for people with low seniority in favor of ones with high seniority?
The best option is to eliminate the unions entirely along with basing everything on the seniority system and let flight attendants and pilots move freely between jobs for different carriers without having to take a massive penalty to do so resulting from the seniority rules.
Sure, more experience should demand higher pay (especially among the pilots,) but that experience should demand that pay at any airline, not just the one you’re currently with. And that’s how it already works in pretty much every industry that isn’t heavily unionized, especially the ones with highly specialized knowledge and experience requirement levels anywhere near that of an airline pilot.
“We refuse to let Scott the greedy Grinch steal our holiday wishes, do away with the concessions and quit being cheap and vicious.” So, yeah, you’re a Grinch if you don’t give us 28% now and 4%/year in perpetuity. Why not ask for a DB pension plan?
Best wishes go out to those United FAs. I hope you guys get the contract you deserve and love.
Flight attendants out here thinking they are rocket scientists. All they do is stare at their phones and barely provide any actual customer service. Being a flight attendant requires no degree and is a low skill job. Easily replaceable with a few weeks of training so it makes no sense they are trying to act like they are brain surgeons with their demands. There are always other jobs out there if you are unhappy… but beware that you may actually need to have some type of skill set other than passing out pretzels.