On Wednesday August 14, Alaska Airlines’ flight attendants rejected the tentative agreement (TA) with the airline, forcing their union back to the negotiating table. The TA was secured in June 2024 following a year and a half of discussions.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), which represents 6,900 Alaska employees, announced in a press release that 64% of members had voted against the deal with 94% of eligible employees casting ballots. The TA offered an average pay increase of 32% for Alaska Airlines’ flight attendants along with boarding pay and retroactive pay going back to 2022. The inclusion of boarding pay was seen as a huge win for flight attendants given that Delta Air Lines is the only major airline to currently offer this perk.
While the TA was rejected, this does not automatically mean that flight attendants at the SeaTac-based carrier will strike. Labor relations in the aviation industry are strictly governed by the Railway Labor Act, making it incredibly hard for flight attendants to strike. To become a reality, the National Mediation Board (NMB) would have to decide that the negotiations had reached an impasse and release both sides into a 30-day “cooling off period.” Even if the NMB did release the two parties, Biden’s administration has the power to intervene and prevent a strike taking place.
When announcing the results of the ballot, the AFA-CWA said it was “democracy in action”, begrudgingly adding that “flight attendants always have the final say on any contract”. It is understandable that union leaders are frustrated given that they have spent the last couple of months speaking at roadshows, trying to convince Alaska Airlines’ flight attendants to ratify the deal. These efforts have proven futile.
While the AFA-CWA may be disappointed by the result following months of negotiations, they also recognise that there is no point dwelling on a redundant deal. In the press release, the union set out the next steps including sending a survey to members, analyzing the results, drafting revised proposals, requesting new federally mediated bargaining dates, and scheduling additional mobilization efforts.
While the survey will hopefully result in a new deal that is more in line with their members’ expectations, it is unclear how long it will take to roll out the next steps. Unsurprisingly the union did not include any indication of timelines in the press release, vaguely saying it would “fight to address membership concerns as expeditiously as possible”. However, it does not take an expert to realize that these steps will take time with negotiations effectively starting from square one.
Alaska Airlines’ management team may have the luxury of time, but the AFA-CWA doesn’t. While it tries to work out a plan for reaching a new TA as quickly as possible, some of its members are struggling to make a living on pay that has been static since 2022. The financial situation for flight attendants is dire in some cases, as revealed during the federal investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 when a fuselage panel blew out of the plane.
A flight attendant at the airline told federal investigators that on the day of the incident, they had woken up at 5:00am then worked two package-delivery shifts before heading straight to the Portland airport around 2:30pm for the flight. This was not a particularly junior attendant either - they had been with Alaska for four years and another airline four years before that. To add salt to the wound, while flight attendants at Alaska Airlines struggle, their non-unionised peers at Delta have seen their wages raised multiple times in recent years and most recently received a 5% increase in April 2023.
So, if the financial situation is desperate why did members opt to continue negotiations? From anecdotal evidence, it seems that flight attendants were disappointed by a number of elements in the contract and felt it was not offering industry leading pay. One particular grievance was around the TA not containing a ‘Snap-Up’ provision. This means that Delta and United flight attendants will quickly earn more than their peers at Alaska with the latter having no mechanism to push against this.
In the comment section of the press release announcing the result, one flight attendant at Alaska Airlines said, “I appreciate all your hard work on this but feel we deserve better.” Furthermore, flight attendants at the airline will feel emboldened asking for more money given that Alaska’s planned merger with Hawaiian Airlines is expected to go through.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) have likely been closely watching the results considering that they opened voting the day before AFA-CWA's vote ended. As discussed in our previous post, the APFA has been strenuously arguing that their deal is the best they can do after negotiating for nearly four years. However, unsurprisingly attendants at the airline are questioning whether it’s really as generous as the AFPA makes out.
American Airlines and Alaska Airlines are not in the same financial position. American Airlines is expected to make no profits this quarter so waiting for a better deal will be riskier. In contrast, Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines will generate significant revenue if it goes through. Despite this, some American Airlines’ flight attendants are willing to reject the TA and take the wager.
One vocal opponent of the deal is American Airlines Los Angeles flight attendants base President John Nikides. He explained his reason for objecting, noting that “While boarding pay was a huge focus in these negotiations, its effect on lowering the hourly rate cannot be ignored”. To an outsider, it seems that the involvement of unions creates an either/or situation for flight attendants where they have to choose between boarding pay or hourly rate increases. In contrast, Delta flight attendants have painlessly secured both.
Attention is now turning to the deal between American Airlines and APFA with less than a month till voting closes. The question remains as to whether American Airlines’ flight attendants take the deal or follow the path trodden by Alaska Airlines’ flight attendants and go back to the negotiating table for an indeterminate length of time in the blind hope of a better deal. We don’t have long to find out.
Comments