United Airlines flight attendants will take part in a vote to authorize a strike as negotiations for a new contract enter a new and “critical” phase, the union representing crew members at the Chicago-based airline said Tuesday.
The vote to authorize a strike has long been expected, and the Flight Attendants Association (AFA-CWA) has warned since at least last October that it was considering calling a strike vote if United did not meet its demands for big pay increases.
“United flight attendants cannot afford to wait for improvements,” commented Ken Diaz, the president of the United affiliate of the larger union AFA. “We deserve an industry-leading contract and are ready to show United management that we will do whatever it takes,” Diaz continued.
Diaz alleges that United management is intentionally delaying a settlement – a tactic the labor movement says is repeated throughout the industry to save money by paying wages that do not keep pace with rising inflation.
Calling a vote to authorize a strike becomes a routine part of the bargaining process and is intended to demonstrate to federal negotiators that workers are not only serious about escalating the conflict, but also that they stand behind their union.
A vote to authorize a strike was seen as crucial to negotiating an industry-leading collective bargaining agreement for Southwest’s flight attendants. A similar vote at Alaska Airlines is also seen by the AFA as helpful in getting the Seattle-headquartered airline’s flight attendants to a new tentative collective bargaining agreement.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents American Airlines crew members, also believes that their call for a strike, which was backed by massive support from its members, has led to more pressure on company management in recent weeks to improve its wage offer.
However, the vote to authorize a strike at United is also significant because there has not been such a vote since 2005 and it occurred during bankruptcy negotiations in a completely different economic situation for the airline.
One of the most important demands of the AFA offshoot United is that the airline introduce a compensation concept called “Ground Time Pay,” whereby flight attendants would receive half of their hourly wage whenever they are working but not physically flying.
Traditionally, flight attendants in the United States receive their hourly wage only from the time the plane leaves the gate until the time it reaches its destination.
This means that flight attendants can work for hours without being paid – especially if they are handling multiple flights per day. Delta Air Lines and Skywest have already implemented “boarding pay” to address this situation, and Alaska’s tentative agreement also includes a boarding pay clause.
However, as the name suggests, the on-board allowance only covers the time the flight attendant spends on the plane, not the time between flights or the time after stamping in at the airport.
Ballots for the strike vote will be mailed to United’s 28,000 flight attendants, and voting will begin on August 1. Voting will close on August 28, and results are expected to be released very soon thereafter.
Flight attendants are expected to vote overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, but a strike would still be a long way off and the National Mediation Board would have to declare a stalemate before it could grant both sides a 30-day cooling-off period.
The NMB has been extremely reluctant to place American Airlines flight attendants on a cooling-off period, and the upcoming presidential election has made that possibility even less likely.
United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
