As flight attendants at Delta Air Lines enjoy another annual raise and the most generous profit sharing in the airline industry, flight attendants at United Airlines find themselves in a holding pattern, working without a raise since 2019. But is a new deal finally around the corner?
United Flight Attendants Continue To Wait For A Raise
Progress has been slow in negotiating a new contract for the more than 29,000 flight attendants at United Airlines. Both sides accuse the other of acting unreasonably.
We have not heard much lately about progress being made, with both sides keeping quiet, at least publicly, about the specific points of disagreement that remain outstanding.
Commenting on rumors of a JetBlue-United partnership in a memo to flight attendants, the AFA appeared dismissive, but added, “It is important to stay focused on the facts and on our negotiations. We are headed into three straight weeks of negotiations and we will be pushing hard to reach an agreement flight attendants can ratify.”
A new contract is inevitable for flight attendants–even CEO Scott Kirby has repeatedly promised an “industry-leading” contract, but the two sides appear far apart, perhaps even more so in an era in which United has now issued a bifurcated earnings estimate with genuine fears of a recession amidst economic and political uncertainty.
A Plea For Sara Nelson
Sara Nelson, often called the world’s most powerful flight attendant, is a figurehead for the entire Association of Flight Attendants, but she’s also still a United flight attendant herself (though I’m not sure she is an active one).
Rather than exerting all her full energy in helping flight attendants at United secure a new contract (especially as the economy contracts), she is worried about a private club in Washington, DC:
Workers at London Heathrow Airport:
Attacking Scott Galloway for saying that we need to directly confront the federal budget deficit and national debt:
A wage floor for Nike workers in Asia:
I could go on (without cherry-picking her tweets), but you get the idea.
All important issues, but not a single tweet recently on the plight of United flight attendants. She’s lost the trees in the forest of organized labor…and those trees are struggling. I sense no urgency.
Of course, one can walk and chew gum at the same time, but I find the optics exactly the kind of off-putting ideological rhetoric that helped deliver the 2024 election to President Trump.
I’m not trying to make a political statement as much as present an observation that these sort of partisan tweets undermine what should be her primary goal: a pragmatic but generous new contract for United flight attendants that left, right, and center can rally around (and yes, even flight attendants at United have a wide variety of politcal views and the Trump-dominated mediation board does not need more reasons to side with the company over its workers).
CONCLUSION
As United and the AFA-CWA sit down for further negotiations, it would be nice if Sara Nelson put as much energy into a new contract as she seems to do for her other pet projects. My point is not to demean Nelson, but to remind her that all the energy she has directed to other causes comes at a price, for time is limited and precious currency. Maybe if she put a little more effort into finalizing a contract, that contract would be signed.
But as each day that goes by and economic conditions worsen, the prospects of an industry-leading (versus industry-matching) contract diminish.
Flight attendants at United–especially junior ones–deserve better.
image: AFA-CWA / YouTube
very well said, Matthew.
DL certainly knew the stage of UA-AFA negotiations when it announced its latest pay increase – and it simply means that UA is going to have to open its pocket book wider.
Don’t forget that UA’s mechanics also have an amendable contract and they shot down by over 99% the contract proposal that their union had hammered out w/ the company, just like what happened with UA’s first pilot proposal. Ultimately, DL became the first of the big 3 to sign a post-covid pilot contract and UA’s pilot contract fairly closely mirrors DL’s.
UA’s labor groups have a major inability to understand the desires and represent the interests of their workgroups. It isn’t just the AFA but UA seems to have done a better job at delaying getting a deal w/ the FAs.
Given that the APFA managed to get over a half billion dollars in retro pay for AA’s FAs, the price will be even higher for UA once they finally get around to signing something.
it’s important to clarify Sara Nelson’s role as International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) and why her responsibilities go far beyond just United.
Sara leads a union that represents tens of thousands of flight attendants across multiple airlines, not just ua. Her job is to oversee the bigger picture… ensuring all AFA members are supported, advocating for industry wide improvements, and maintaining AFA’s visibility in both labor and political spheres.
Contract negotiations for specific airlines, like UA, are handled by that airline’s Master Executive Council (MEC) in this case, AFA United and its elected leaders. That’s their specific responsibility and they are the ones directly involved with management at United Airlines.
Sara’s political and public presence strengthens our leverage. Her national profile has helped push for legislation on issues like cabin safety, staffing minimums, and corporate accountability..all of which impact flight attendants directly, at United and elsewhere.
Of course, solidarity and transparency are critical and we can absolutely push our MEC for stronger communication and faster results but blaming the international president for United’s delays misses how AFA is structured and the broader strategy involved.
Let’s keep the pressure on where it’s most effective: the United MEC and management, while recognizing that Sara’s advocacy and leadership on a national scale helps all of us in the long run.
Regarding the progress of negotiations, the most reputable source for contract negotiations at UA is actually open to the public and there has been great progress in the last few months. More progress than the last 3 years, for sure.
I appreciate this update. Very helpful, Trixi.
And to be clear, I am aware of Nelson’s role (I even mentioned it), but I still don’t understand why she hasn’t been more vocal/public about the UA contract, especially as UA is now the last major US carrier to ratify a new FA contract.
In recent weeks negotiations seem to have been moving faster than before and it seems like a TA is imminent. AFA mentioned they would be beginning financial talks soon which is generally the final stages of negotiations. The company also seems willing to make progress as they said PBS would not be in this current contract which was a huge sticking point for the union and a big hard no for a lot of FAs. We’re not 100% sure what goes on behind the scenes, but the AFA has had a major tone shift on progress being made. There definitely seems to be a sentiment that these upcoming 3 weeks of negotiations will be the final 3 weeks. For the first time it really seems like we are close to something.
You did not research well before posting this Matthew. United has nearly 29,000 flight attendants and a Tentative Agreement is likely to be reached for the United flight attendants this month! The Union has indicated it
We will see about that. I hope so…
As for the numbers, I said “more than” 25K and according to UA’s source, there are less than 26K:
https://corporateimpact.united.com/data/
Whether there is 25K or 29K, I’m not wrong in saying “more than” 25K…
The UA “source” is wrong. lol we have a device that literally tells us how many flight attendants are in each base and how many system wide. It’s nearly 29,000 now
You were literally leaving out thousands of flight attendants and it is not the most accurate figure.Don’t be surprised when United has more flight attendants than American and Delta Matthew since United has the most international flying.
Delay. Distract. Demoralize. And this particular blog is a great example of the fourth aspect of union busting, DIVIDE.
I agree with Trixi’s reply 100%
It’s a total disgrace there have been no raises for many flight attendants for four going on five years. That’s why nothing less than full retro should be a non starter.
Why has management delayed? Because it can. The same reason why they build trips that have one and two working legs before a trans con red eye. They do it because they can.
The NLR Act of 1933 is a joke. A work group shouldn’t have to wait four years to get work improvements/ raises. There should be a time limit to have to wait for self help. Two years would be more than reasonable. If the management had to deal with a possible work action after two years, there would have been a deal already.
Not only does United currently have a competitive advantage now as they are paying a huge number of its employees significantly less than its competitors. United are saving loads of money since they weaseled its way out of paying thousands of employees their promised pensions.
United has plenty of money for hundreds of millions in stock buy backs but don’t want to give its employees overdue raises.