Despite running on an unashamedly pro-business, anti-regulation ticket, few in Washington were prepared for just how hard President Trump would swing the axe on government spending and red tape. Now, with Elon Musk’s Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE) seemingly calling the shots at the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the power of once influential aviation unions is increasingly being called into question.
In February, Musk and his team of misfit cost-cutters laid off approximately 400 FAA employees. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), the union which represents FAA workers, labelled the decision “shameful” and warned that it would “place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin”. However, the union has so far been powerless to stop Trump’s wishes, with the FAA cancelling a $2.4 billion air traffic control system deal with Verizon just to hand the contract over to Musk’s Starlink satellite company.
Nor is what’s happening at the FAA an isolated case. Earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved to dismantle the collective bargaining power of employees at the Transport Security Administration (TSA), claiming that their prerogative to file family and medical leave requests was constraining the agency’s ability to safeguard US aviation. Noem also highlighted that nearly 200 of the TSA’s 47,000-strong staff work full time on union business for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union.
AFGE, along with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) are suing the Trump administration over Noem’s “unlawful” decision, however the Department of Homeland Security appears undeterred, saying in a statement that the move will tear down “bureaucratic hurdles” and “strengthen workforce agility”.
Trump’s government is clearly willing to sidestep or indeed bulldoze labor unions to achieve the President’s red-tape-confetti dreams. This is important for workers at commercial airlines, since the President directly appoints members of the National Mediation Board: the final arbiter in disputes between airlines and their unionised workforces.
Trump’s picks, one of which is due this year and the other two in 2027, will likely swing the board to a Republican majority and result in more decisions that benefit management over workforces.
This is particularly pressing for flight attendants at United Airlines, whose dispute over increased wages and ground pay was first referred to the NMB in 2023. Since then, staff at United – who are represented by the AFA – have not received a pay rise and are still not entitled to boarding pay. By contrast, cabin crew at Delta Air Lines, who are not unionised, have received 12 base pay rises in the last 15 years and are entitled to boarding pay since 2022.
Under President Trump, disputes at unionised airlines will still be lengthy, drawn-out affairs but with the overwhelmingly likelihood that the NMB sides with management at the end of it.
Airline staff are seemingly aware of this. In a poll conducted by USTN immediately prior to Trump’s inauguration in January, 66% of flight attendants said that the benefits of being part of a labor union are declining.
Meanwhile, only 29% said they were happy with their union handled pay negotiations. In 2024, staff at American Airlines finally reached a pay settlement comparable to their peers at Delta after four years of negotiation. United flight attendants are currently five years and counting.
We’re now just three months into President Trump’s second term. The administration is likely to be increasingly emboldened in its ambition to boost businesses and bash bureaucracy, with aviation already earmarked as a target industry. Soon workers from the ATC tower to the aircraft galley may be left wondering what those union dues were all for.
Comments