The union that represents tens of thousands of flight attendants at United Airlines claims the Chicago-based carrier is demanding ‘far-reaching’ concessions in new contract negotiations and is presenting misleading facts to crew members in a bid to make their offer seem better than what it actually is.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) told its members in a rare weekend memo that the demands for concessions being made by United are “unheard of” and have not been seen elsewhere in the aviation industry.
Some of the concessions being demanded by the airline include a requirement for flight attendants to be contactable and ready to respond at a moment’s notice during their layovers when they are meant to be resting or enjoying their off-time.
Other concessions being tabled by United include getting rid of additional payments for working at night, reducing the amount of rest flight attendants enjoy on their layovers, making working days longer, and introducing a minimum amount of flying hours for crew members to access medical benefits.
United also wants to “eliminate PTO” for flight attendants.
AFA listed 24 concessions proposed by United, although the union warned that this wasn’t a complete list, as it attempts to convince its own members that the changes to the contract weren’t just a “couple of tweaks” that the airline had portrayed as being.
“Recently, management set up a website containing misleading information about negotiations, including dramatically inflating the number of hours Flight Attendants fly,” the memo slammed.
“As a pointer to management, if you have to assume a Flight Attendant flies 125 hours every month to make your proposals look good, perhaps you need to go back to the drawing board.”
The memo continued: “In addition to being factually incorrect, it attempts to directly negotiate with individual Flight Attendants rather than engage in their legal obligation to negotiate with our union.”
Last week, AFA’s United master executive council met in Washington, D.C., to discuss a new negotiation strategy after it sacked the old contract negotiating committee, which had tried and failed to reach a deal with United for nearly three years.
The decision to oust the negotiators came just days after federal mediators decided to delay any further negotiations between United and AFA until the New Year.
Saturday’s message appears to reflect concerns that United’s flight attendant workforce isn’t entirely convinced with the direction that their union has taken in bargaining up to this point.
The union, however, attempted to reassure jittery flight attendants, telling them it was “aggressively” pushing to secure a contract, but countered that the concessions were a “major obstacle.”
The flight attendant union has demanded an inflation-busting 28% pay raise in the contract’s first year, followed by 4% every year after that as part of an open-ended agreement, along with a ratification bonus, retro pay, and a new pay concept known as ‘ground duty pay.’
Along with its shopping list of concessions, United has told the union that the pay demands are a non-starter and that it will only offer the same pay raises recently locked in by flight attendants at American Airlines.
United has also refused the demand for retroactive pay or a ratification bonus.
Stick to your Guns. You guys deserve better, than what United is offering.
Flight attendant here, just imagine being in our shoes with this scenario. You’re off and starting being on company work ( on call) at midnight and for 24h, they call you whenever to assign you a trip with a min of 2 hrs before the flight takes off ( yes they will call you at 1 or 2 am). You get to the airport, then to the gate at the report time. From the report time to having passengers on-board, you are NOT being paid. On top of that, you’re being asked to be overly nice and go above and beyond while if you hurt yourself by helping a passenger to put their bag in the overhead, you will not be covered by the company insurance ( at your own risk per the company). Boarding complete, you close the door and NOW you’re starting to get ́paid ( after 2 hours from your being at work!) If delay or cancellation, if you do not have enough seniority, you’ll be on reserve which means even after spending like 5 hours with passengers on-board, you would NOT be paid. You’ll spend a LOT of time at the airport and be paid HALF of this time. Crazy right? So with the Union, we are fighting to request DECENT work/life balance with proper and FAIR financial recognition. These companies makes billiions and all their managements get HUGE bonuses (millions each sometimes!) But they say we are asking for too much for being paid for the time we ACTUALLY spent?! They want us to keep working for free, shame us for not going above a beyond in situations where they don’t show any recognition or financial reward! Stop being greedy and pay your employees! We love the job, we love the people, we love the lifestyle, even to the point of earning less. But we want FAIR now!
Keep fighting! Been in a profession for decades that required striking to get anywhere with selfish, greedy companies interested only in the top level benefits. It’s not easy, but you deserve better. Fight for it!
Pilots get paid for block time ie. Ie. Leaving the gate to gate arrival at destination. As u r busy boarding pax they are busy with pre flt checks. Why do you say there is a difference?
I’m a United FA too, and don’t agree with you at all. We are paid very fair hourly rates, especially at top out pay, which more than cover boarding and ground time. If you want to be paid for the entire time you’re on the clock, like you would be if you worked at McDonalds, they would have to decrease our hourly rates down to practically minimum wage. Compensation for boarding and sit time is INCLUDED with our hourly pay rates. When I started with Continental, we had a 2 hour call out, with call out periods, and it was very manageable. It’s my understanding that they want to go back to this style, which would be a huge improvement from today. Yes, you might get called at 2am for a 2 hour call out, but you’ll know in advance to expect it due to your call out period. What’s not fair is the union blaming the company for extreme concessions, when they’re actually being quite logical. I’m ready for a new contract and a pay raise, not more union stalling!
Looks like united is trying to outdo doug parker at being the biggest A-holes in the industry to their FAs.
United should include in the contract that flight attendants be held more accountable to their snarky behaviour. Way too many UA flight attendants treat their customer like the enemy.
BEHAVE APPROPRIATELY AND FAS WILL NOT BE “SNARKY”
PASSENGERS ON UPGRADES,FREE TICKETS ,ETC. BEHAVE LIKE CHILDREN .
42 YEARS IN THE PROFESSION AND THE THINGS I SEE IS DISGUSTING!
Paying customers do not have to bow down to service workers. I’m an 30 year senior FA for United, and this mentality amongst some of the FA population is unacceptable. It’s especially obvious with the sub-UA ones. We are on the aircraft to provide high quality service to customers whether they are polite, rude, happy, sad, jerks, or angels, millionaires, or prisoners. Our job includes safety, yes, but we spend 90% of our time on the service portion of the flight, not stop drop and reviewing, or preflighting the ICK kit. The entitlement of FAs like you is what is really “disgusting”. When I go on vacation for example, I behave however I want. If I want to be rude to the waitress, send food back, complain, or be short with the staff, or act like a child, you better know that I will. For that reason, when passengers are on my aircraft, I have zero expectations on their behavior; they can behave however they want as long as they don’t break FARs. In fact, I usually provide better service to the rude ones. In training they told us to kill them with kindness! Everyone can have their moment when they’re the one paying for the service, including if they get an upgrade to Polaris. They’re allowed to behave like children, because they are a guest. You’re not a school teacher. You’re a flight attendant! Recognize your place. J
Another example of corporate greed.
Where’s the list of 24 concessions proposed by United? The union says there were 24, show us 24. Asking for a minimum hours worked to qualify for benefits isn’t unreasonable. Yes, pay by flight hours makes in a different calculation, but any employer requires anywhere from an average of 30-35 hours per week. They could use the same formula used to calculation hours worked as a flight crew member to qualify for FMLA is a metric. Shorter layover periods mean previous contracts negotiated longer than required by the FAA. That requires more flight attendants to cover the schedule. Contactable throughout their layover? Again, show me in writing from the company. First of all, if the company contacts during legal rest, there’s going to be a reset. It’s not 2021. It’s clear to me that there was a lot of unproductive time negotiated into the current agreement. The union isn’t going to get to keep the unproductive time and overstaffing AND get massive raises. I’m not even sure massive raises are attainable. The unions held the upper hands after covid, and companies paid up. The pendulum has begun to swing back the other way. This contract will come down to a cooling off period, and to see some kind of job action at the end of the 30 days would not surprise me. The union is overreaching, and overselling what they’ll be able to get in the next contract. The union doesn’t care if the contract is unproductive. Unproductive means more members. More members mean more dues. It’s union greed, from leadership to membership.
Lol, are we being punked ?
What an idiot…
Not a fan of unions
There has to be some compromise. 24% raise. This will increase ticket prices. All increases increase in flatiron. You should get paid for all time working The management does not need such huge bonuses. On top of that blame shareholders who demand more revenue thus they pay management slot to get there. It is simply a big circle. Oh and don’t forget they could stop the cheap flights for employees
FAA minimum rest is a floor to the amount of rest at a layover station. This rest period is too small for normal operations.
It varies on several factors. But for example purposes let’s say it is 8 hours. By the time you deplane, wait for the hotel van or such transportation to the hotel, get a shower, eat something IF any restaurant is still open at or near the hotel, wind down, have to get up 2 hours before departure to get ready, be in lobby more than 1 hour before departure, forget about breakfast, to name a few things, you are lucky to get 6 hours of sleep in reality. FAA minimum rest is not a good amount of time for constant rest.
Airline industry flying work is not easily assimilated to the normal 9 to 5 job of any kind. Things sound good on paper. But when put into reality practice it’s a whole different animal.
Good luck to the UAL flight attendants in getting a good contract without CHAOS (Create Havoc Around Our System). But get ready and hunker down. From a retired 20 yr flight attendant, from a different airline. This is textbook corporate greed at its finest.
Why do you not mention Duty RIG and Trip RIG when you claim you are not getting paid while on duty?
Why do you not mention that you are getting paid while not doing any work or while sleeping? Any other profession being paid to sleep in hotels?
Even if we are “not doing anything “ while sitting in the airport. Remember we are still in uniforms, we according to united, have to me friendly and able to respond if anyone ask anything while waiting for a flight. But also have to after 10 hours be ready to be called and interrupt your layover if they a system meltdown. Most of the total rig in 1 working day can go up to 30 dollars top. That in a way not enough to say we get pay to be at a hotel doing nothing. On a layover they had only 10 hours with 30m minimum rest, means within the 10 hours we have to deplane and take the hotel bus. Also wake up 2 hours early to be ready for pick up. And the be at the airport for a check in and a boarding process that only pays $2.35. And if a delay happens you don’t get paid to what you hourly pay should be instead you get $2.35 still, even though you have passengers in a plane and now you are responsible for anything that happens. Unless you work in the industry it’s hard to understand lots of things that happen.
Author of this article apparently doesn’t know what “tabled” means. Totally opposite of ‘on the table.”
Brian Thompson
Wildcat.
Anything else the flight attendants won’t have anything to do with? Never worked in an a job where the employee dictates what they will or will not do. Always interesting. There are many other service jobs. Think about it.
“Enjoy”??? There is nothing to “enjoy” on a 10 hour layover at an airport hotel. You are painting a wrong picture here, my friend.
Rethink your comment. Guess who saves your butt, when you suddenly get a heart attack in the air??? Or, on the plane on the ground, when your flight attendants don’t get paid a cent to perform First Aid on you. THANK YOU!
Why would you expect to be paid to help a fellow human being who is having a medical problem? You should do that anyway, as a good person. As an FA of 25 years, I have had only one medical bad enough to warrant a diversion. This whole “lifeguard” shtick is getting old, even to me as a fellow flight attendant.
You knew the details and nuisances of the job before you took it . They explained all of that to you when you started.
If you don’t like it quit and do something else.
It requires no special skill or education to be a flight attendant. 2-3 weeks of training is all it takes and you guys can easily be replaced with younger , cheaper people. That’s why they aren’t bending over backwards to offer you an industry leading contract like they did the pilots . And they never will .
You better take what you can get or just leave the industry if you don’t like it .
Simple fix
I suggest you fly standby and see how much you like it. See if you get anywhere. Maybe you have an appointment, death in family, paying for a hotel if you arrive or not…maybe ot so great