Flight attendants at United Airlines have rejected a proposed contract and are now laying out their new list of demands, revealing frustration that goes deeper than missing raises.
United Flight Attendants Reveal New List Of Demands After Overwhelmingly Rejecting Contract Deal
Late last week, the Association of Flight Attendants‑CWA (AFA-CWA) returned to the bargaining table with United after its members overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement in July. The union says roughly 71% voted “No” (with 92% turnout), underlining the depth of discontent with the long-awaited new collective bargaining agreement.
> Read More: United Airlines Flight Attendants Overwhelmingly Reject New Contract
What They’re Asking For
After keeping the list private for some months, PYOK flags the top eight concerns for the union as it returns to the bargaining table to hash out a final contract:
- Pay for waiting on the ground between flights
- Less tiring red-eye flying
- No more layover notifications
- More rest on longer flights
- Contract compliance guarantees
- Improvements for reserve flight attendants
- Better layover hotels
- Improvements to health care and retirement benefits
I’m not sure how to make a red eye light less tiring, but the other objectives at least make sense.
One of the more contentious items is ground duty pay. Historically for flight attendants with United, pay begins only after the aircraft door closes and the plane pushes back. The union had sought full compensation from arrival to final duty release, but says the carrier offered only “boarding pay” in the previous agreement. It’s not clear that, especially in this environment, United will offer any improvement there, at least not without making other parts of the contract less valuable.
Why This Matters And Why The Contract Was Rejected
The tentative deal—offered in May 2025—promised what United called “industry-leading” increases (up to 40% in first year value, including immediate pay raises of at least 26%). Yet many attendants say the improvements didn’t fix what they see as systemic issues: unpaid time, unpredictable schedules, rest that doesn’t feel restful, and a sense that their “deal” still left them behind compared to pilots or across the industry.
The rejection may be a bargaining tactic, but it embarrassed the union, which pushed hard for flight attendants to ratify the first agreement. Even so, the union says it is a statement by 28,000 attendants that they’ll accept nothing less than meaningful change. But as one AFA-CWA member put it in a survey reference: “The survey kept asking things like ‘Did you vote no because you should always vote no?’… They should be more concerned with what they did wrong instead of blaming us.”
With no new agreement yet in place, United and its cabin crew group will meet again in December, the union says. Mediation continues under federal oversight, and the stakes are high. It is highly unlikely that flight attendants will be granted the right by federal mediators to strike (even during the Biden administration, this was not allowed).
At least as of yet, I have not seen flight attendants take out their anger over a lack of a new contract on passengers: we are all thankful for that.
CONCLUSION
United’s flight attendants are still in search of a deal and their eight-point demand sheet reveals that the contract gap goes beyond dollars and cents. It goes to time spent unpaid, night after night, hotel quality, rest quality, and at a fundamental level (as one flight attendant told me), respect. If United wants to keep its promised premium experience and avoid unnecessary turbulence, it needs to strike a bargain that the union can sell to flight attendants so this long-drawn-out chapter can be closed.
image: AFA
As a former UAL F/A, I highly agree with the list of demands. The job is difficult, strenuous and exhausting. To be on an airplane, sometimes for HOURS , maybe due to weather or mechanical issue is ridiculous. The passengers become anxious, and often unruly,usually taking their frustrations out on the F/As, who are expected to deal with them graciously, but not get paid for their efforts. As well, the reserve system iss problematic, any improvements are welcome. The demands seem reasonable to me, hopefully UAL will reward these well deserved benefits to their hard working crew members, to most travelers the “face” of the airline.
Roofing is difficult.
Landscaping is difficult.
Teaching is difficult.
Firefighting is difficult.
Policing is difficult.
Playing on your phone all day and being rude to customers is not difficult. If the job and the pay is too difficult for you….quit.
Exactly.
How many of these demands were in the previous contract? My understanding is that the downvotes contract included a 27% increase to account for 27% inflation. That is more than I have received in my job by a meaningful degree.
Except for “contract compliance guarantees” (whatever that is) all of this appears to be yet another improvement over the previous contract on top of a pay increase which exceeds inflation. Does something concrete justify these concessions from United when it does not appear that the union is giving something back in the negotiations?
Well said, Judith. I hope the flight attendants get what they want as soon as possible. Don’t mind the haters on here. Unions are still excellent for protecting their members and for fighting for better conditions and pay.
This is especially relevant now that American Airlines has announced their Indian CIO is transferring most of the white collar jobs to Hyderabad and Delta is reputedly also transferring jobs to that region. The Free Market can’t protect us from crony capitalism.
Yes, an interesting issue I will highlight in a separate story.
Regarding the less tiring red-eyes, as a former UA flight attendant, I can speak to that. Before my leaving, we had red eyes where you operated a leg before or after the actual red-eye flight.
Examples:
LAS – SFO (late evening), SFO – ORD (red-eye);
SFO – OGG (evening departure), OGG – SFO (red-eye).
LAX – IAD (red eye), IAD -PIT (the next morning departure)
The second leg of the two flights within the same duty period, which included a red-eye flight, was a killer.
In my opinion, having only the red-eye flight in a duty period would make it less tiring.
The red eye pairings have gotten worse since you have left. There are trips where the red eye is the 3rd leg of the duty period. For example, after an overnight in MSP, you work MSP-DEN, DEN-SMF, then the red eye SMF-ORD. Or you overnight in LAS, work a SFO turn (LAS-SFO then SFO-LAS) then work the red eye back to ORD. I think some FAs like the red eye overnight turns for childcare purposes, but there really should be a maximum of one leg before a red eye.
What are you doing on your layover that you’re not getting the rest you need for your upcoming shift? So you’re scheduled to work 3 legs within your legal duty period how many flight attendants are scheduled to work 3 or 4 legs within their duty period. It is on you the flight attendant to get the proper rest while on layover. Red eyes are hard but it’s on each individual flight attendant to make sure they are getting the proper rest both physically and mentally so they are prepared for a 3 or 4 leg work day. Demanding something like that be change might seem easy but it most likely would require United to change the entire work rules around the entire duty day and not just for red eyes. If the union opens that can of worms then you’ll have the FA’s who don’t fly red eyes but still have 3 or 4 leg days saying hey what about us. We don’t want our duty day to be this long we don’t want to fly 4 legs a day it’s tiring. Changing things like duty time number of allowable legs also changes the number of FA’s United needs. Restricting duty legs even on red eyes could result in United needing to hire hundreds if not thousand more FA’s. That may sound like a great idea until United then says well we now will reduce the minimum monthly guarantee hours.
What flight attendants have to remember is you’re not on vacation stop treating your layover as a vacation and treat your layover a your personal time to rest, sleep, relax, eat and recenter yourself so you’re ready for your next shift.
lol. Less tiring red eyes lol. Bet they love lunch or supper in Paris or Guam though. Your serving the Public not yourselves. I agree with full pay on duty. 71% not in favour of current offer is considerable, probably the senior bunch that cant afford to retire lol. Whats waiting another year for a good contract when you’ve waited 6 now? United Bosses are not interested in making a deal. Too bad your American. AC FA walked off the job and grounded the Airline. Too bad your rights are not respected. You are who you vote for!
Some of you are really stupid. Do you not realize the job of a flight attendant is to evacuate the aircraft safely and help you in a medical emergency? If a flight attendant is too fatigued from an unsafe trip and how it’s built it can end up causing multiple issues a major one being a blown side and more errors during an medical emergency.But if you don’t care about yourself and others just say that idiot! Newsflash Delta and American do not allow long sits before red eyes. United however does with MANY blown slide reports and flight attendants saying they almost got into a car accident after working the trip. It needs to change!
As far as making red eyes less tiring–I don’t think many people are aware that when a FA is working a red eye it is usually not their only leg that day. Many red eye flights are built is overnight turns–say ORD-LAX 7p-ish departure, then work the red eye back. Some FAs like these trips, but they’re not for everyone.
However, there are duty periods where you are working THREE legs with the 3rd being the red eye. These are absolutely fatiguing and leads to FAs working up to 15 hours overnight. Unfortunately, this is completely legal under the current contract when a trip like this would be illegal at AA (they have a maximum of 2 legs on an overnight duty period). It wasn’t addressed in the first TA and a lot of FAs were disappointed
First no definite opinion, but by comparison, Amtrak car attendants work 17 hour shifts with only two one hour breaks on long haul routes. They are responsible for delivery of meals at will ( room service essentially ) cleaning and making beds, lifting luggage, trash removal , safety , locking of doors and are also front line employees. Their average hourly union wage is about $30 per hour and often receive tips. Generally they appear happy and satisfied with their employment, even though they are away from their families as are flight attendants. Tell me what I’m missing?
It’s almost as if when you pay people a living (no, a ‘thriving’) wage, benefits, and support, they deliver.
Oh, and what enables them to have/keep those worker protections? Unions, organizing, and never giving up.
So, we should thank the tireless efforts of members and leaders at the Transport Workers Union (TWU), SMART Union, UNITE HERE, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the Amtrak Service Workers Council, just to name a few.
They all fought hard for those better conditions, and they have to keep fighting hard, every day, lest they forget, and lest the greedy oligarchs seek to steal from them, again.
We will defeat today’s corruption, and soon emerge from this second Gilded Age into a new Progressive era.
Better layover hotels? Dont they stay in the same hotels as the pilots? Are they expecting to be at J.W. Marriotts while the captains are at Courtyards?
Maybe they’d be in a better bargaining position today if they hadn’t deliberately dragged their feet for 6 years?
Same hotels as the pilots? The answer is no. Most of the time domestically they are at different hotels. Flight rarely get downtown layovers domestically. That started with the bankruptcy contract when it was forced upon the union..