Last week, we reported that flight attendants at a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines weren’t abiding by procedures designed to reduce the risk of turbulence-related injuries, according to the union that represents crew members at Minneapolis–Saint Paul-based Endeavor Air.
Now, that same union is calling out Endeavor Air over a host of other issues, and the disparity facing regional flight attendants compared to pilots and even their peers at mainline Delta Air Lines.
Chief amongst the complaints from the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) is that flight attendants at Endeavor Air are only given three days of paid bereavement leave following the death of a close relative. In comparison, pilots at the airline get five days of paid leave.
“Same company. Same operation. Same family tragedy. Different value assigned to the employee experiencing it,” the union slammed in a recent memo. “What exactly is the difference between a pilot grieving the loss of a parent and a Flight Attendant grieving the loss of a parent? Does one hurt more? Does one recover faster?” the memo added.
“Or has the company simply decided that one employee group’s time is more valuable than another’s?”
Of course, different employee groups are represented by different unions, and that can often result in different policies for what you might otherwise assume would be a standard company-wide standard for bereavement leave.
But how about something like per diems… the amount of money that flight attendants are paid during layovers to help towards meal costs. At Endeavor Air, flight attendants earn just $2.25 per hour in per diems.
In comparison, their colleagues at mainline Delta Air Lines earn $3.30 per hour in per diems. Remember, per diems aren’t designed for take-home pay. They are meant to go towards meals and drinks while staying in a hotel far away from home.
“Apparently, the cost of being away from home is different depending on whose paycheck you receive. The problem is that reality doesn’t work that way,” the union slammed. “The restaurant charges us the same. The hotel charges us the same. The airport charges us the same. The only place where our value changes is on paper.”
“The uncomfortable truth is that the level of disparity Endeavor Flight Attendants have faced for years must come to an end,” the memo continued.
The Association of Flight Attendants has long been critical of the regional airline model, accusing airlines of operating a two-tier system, which employs cheaper regional flight attendants at subcontracted airlines to save costs and boost their bottom lines.
Justifying how flight attendants at these regional carriers earn so much less than mainline crew members, airlines argue they don’t control the contracts of these crew members. That’s all down to the regional carrier, although given the competitive nature of winning these contracts, costs have to be driven down.
What’s particularly strange about this model, though, is that American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Delta Air Lines are contracting regional services through wholly owned subsidiaries. You would, therefore, think that these airlines had some degree of control over how much they were paying for these regional contracts.
Regional airlines were once viewed as nothing more than a stepping stone to landing a job at a mainline carrier. Essentially, employees accepted that they had to earn less and have fewer benefits as part of their career path before becoming a better-paid mainline crew member.
Realistically, though, this isn’t how the system works. Regional flight attendants do the same job as their mainline peers and want to build long-term careers at their regional airline. In order to do so, however, they are battling for improved pay and better contracts.
You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
It seems inequitable but when it involves a collectively-bargained contract term, I have a hard time getting rage-baited.
AFA members should be asking their union leadership why they didn’t negotiate for the same as the pilot group. Did they not look at the pilot contract and look for these types of discrepancies? I bet there are others as well. But I always sat on the management side of the table, so there’s also a good chance the union did ask, but gave it up in exchange for something else. So now they’ll “negotiate” in the media and try to make management look like the bad side. Meh. So glad I never was forced to join a union.
I’m not saying it’s right, people should be given more time to grieve on a human level. But what makes anyone think a flight attendant will get the same treatment as a pilot? Years of higher education, flight training, MANY licensing tests, written tests, Oral tests, checkrides, FAA medical certificate requirements. And even after all of that, several more years of low paid resume building/flight experience time building grueling jobs (flight instructor, pipeline survey, freight, charter, etc.). The even after all of that, a 3 month airline specific type rating and training program with more checkrides, tests, and intense training and studying.
An FA requires a high school diploma and a 5 week training program..
It can be a great job for some… And no shade on them, but it’s like saying a Cashier at 7-11 will get the same benefits as the CEO.
I do agree that the regional airline model is basically a pimp and night worker scenario. But for many it’s a stepping stone, including one many pilots also have to endure. Many have to work at 3 or 4 airlines before finally getting to their “career” job.