A New Year brings with it fresh contract talks between the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) and United Airlines in protracted negotiations to reach an agreement on pay raises, workplace improvements, and, potentially, a slew of concessions.
2026 marks the fifth year that the two sides have been trying (and failing) to reach a deal that flight attendants are willing to accept, but the next round of bargaining could push the airline and the union further apart than ever before.
Contract talks to resume in Chicago
Following a break over the Christmas and New Year holidays, the AFA is set to resume federally mediated bargaining with United in Chicago on Tuesday. The negotiating session is slated to last for four days, during which AFA has told its members that it will be pushing its agenda for a whole range of improvements.
These demands are based on surveys the union conducted with flight attendants after they rejected a proposed tentative agreement last summer.
71% of flight attendants voted down the tentative agreement, which had promised an immediate pay rise of 26.9% on average, boarding pay at half the usual hourly rate, a retroactive bonus, and per diem increases for layovers.
The union identified eight focus areas for new contract talks, which include:
- 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
Concessions are a ‘non-starter’
After a break of several months, the two sides restarted contract talks, and while progress has been made in some areas, the airline has now suggested that if it’s going to entertain the union’s demands, then flight attendants must also be willing to accept concessions.
United is concerned that giving in to all of the union’s demands will significantly increase the overall cost of the contract, so the concessions are aimed at balancing out the cost and reducing the burden on the carrier.
One of the most controversial concessions that United wants to push through is the introduction of a so-called ‘Preferential Bidding System’ designed to optimize the way that flight attendant schedules are built and assigned.
In a New Year email to its members, the union said these concessions were a “non-starter and will not form the basis for discussions moving forward.”
“One thing we will not be spending time on is management’s ridiculous list of concessions,” the email added. “We already beat back these proposals once during TA1 [the first tentative agreement] and have no interest in entertaining them during this second round of bargaining.”
The email continued: “We are laser-focused on winning a Contract with real improvements, not tradeoffs. We refuse to be distracted by management’s nonsensical concessionary proposals and email propaganda.”
Flight attendants demand immediate wage increase
Given that the current flight attendant contract has been amendable since August 2021, crew members at United haven’t received a pay raise for nearly six years. In that period, the cost of living has spiked, and flight attendants are desperate to close that gap.
While a pay raise would normally have to wait until a tentative agreement has been reached and then approved by flight attendants, the union is pushing for immediate economic improvements.
From the union’s perspective, there’s no reason why United can’t quickly reach an agreement on its list of demands, but it also acknowledges that there could be a fight to secure these improvements.
Rather ominously, the email concluded: “We will need to work together if we are going to beat back a greedy corporation that wants to take money out of our pockets to pay for quality of life and wage improvements that we have earned.”
Bottom line
The latest round of bargaining between flight attendants and United Airlines will take place between January 6 and January 9 in Chicago. The union says it has outright rejected proposed new concessions from the airline and wants United to quickly reach an agreement on its list of demands.
HAHAAHHA!
I really try to feel sorry for the union leadership who explicitly told the membership to accept the last contract and was rebuffed.
Trump is never going to let them go on strike. The company doesn’t fool around any more with CHAOS. Their best hope will be a new administration that will come into office in January 2029 and sign off on the union bringing chaos to the American economy.
What’s sad is that the union, publicly at least, neglects to mention that the reason these are the first dates in such a long time is because the federal mediator is basically punishing the union with this cooling off period. Concessions are coming for the flight attendants because they lack the necessary leverage. Certainly they have the desire and motivation to do what’s needed but the fact is that the RLA is not structured that way. Wanting to exercise self help is one thing but the mediator gets to choose when an impasse has been reached in order to allow them to move forward. That mediator tacitly endorsed the last offer and there is no reasonable expectation that they believe the flight attendants deserve more just because they are angry and organized.
I’m puzzled by the fact that the union hasn’t voted out their inept leadership that told them to take the last offer. To the surprise of no one, Kirby is once again proving to be a miser of truly memorable proportions. To combat that the union needs capable leaders rather than people interested in themselves and photo ops.
Unions are like herpes, the gift that keeps on giving…for ever. The current federal administration has nothing to do with this issue. The article states “…the fifth year” that negotiations have been going on. That means that four of those years were under the prior administration and those prior to it…and the list goes on and on. There are many other large companies that are non-union due to management putting the employees’ interests right behind safety first. Treat the employees well, give them the power to “make it happen” and customer service falls right into place. While hiring the most capable people is desired, hiring those who are capable of doing the job AND being treated as part of a family will prosper without a union.