There are many things airlines may have left behind in 2024 but contract disputes is not one of them – at least for United Airlines. Federal mediators announced in December that the carrier was having to delay negotiations yet again, following four years of fruitless talks. Now with the new year upon us, the union representing United Airlines’ flight attendants is under severe pressure to secure a contract in the first quarter of 2025 following a backfired memo, a failing strategy, and a sacked negotiating committee.
There has been little progress since the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), which represents around 25,000 United flight attendants, filed for federal mediation all the way back in 2023. In a sign of desperation, the United Master Executive Council (MEC) met in Washington D.C last November to discuss a new negotiating strategy. This came after the leadership sacked the old contract negotiating committee, which had tried and failed to reach a deal with United during 171 days of face-to-face talks. In a move widely seen as a distress signal, AFA-CWA then decided to release a rare memo listing 24 “far-reaching concessions” that United management had proposed.
AFA-CWA leadership has been attempting to persuade its members that the proposed contract changes were more substantial than the airline had suggested, dismissing criticism that they were mere “tweaks.” However, this commentary has not yielded the expected support. Instead of aligning with their leadership, members have criticized the approach, arguing it highlights the irrationality of the union’s strategy. The memo itself, which comes across less as a factual document and more as pro-union propaganda, has failed to justify to United flight attendants why they should endure another year of stagnant pay — especially as their counterparts at Delta Air Lines and American Airlines enjoy boarding pay, wage increases, and generous profit-sharing schemes.
One United flight attendant commented under the memo, arguing that it’s not fair for the union to be “blaming the company for extreme concessions, when they’re actually being quite logical,” adding “I’m ready for a new contract and a pay raise, not more union stalling!” Another United flight attendant noted the unattainable nature of AFA-CWA’s demands, saying the union is realistically not going to “keep the unproductive time and overstaffing AND get massive raises.”
So as the parties come back to the negotiating table, let’s evaluate some of the key sticking points that are preventing contract negotiations from progressing as this will enable us to evaluate who is being the unreasonable party and therefore what needs to change in the new year.
Significant wage increases
One of the “far-reaching demands” from United management is that they will only offer staff the same pay raises recently secured by American Airlines. AFA-CWA believes this is outrageous despite the fact that they were the ones who pushed American flight attendants to go first in securing a deal, even lending their top negotiator to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents around 27,000 flight attendants employed by American.
AFA-CWA naively believed that American Airlines would secure an industry leading contract and consequently increase the wage floor. The plan was that AFA-CWA could then come in and simply match the new industry standard without too much bargaining. However, this has massively backfired given that American’s contract included pay increases of only 20.5%, far below the 33% wage increase they had been calling for, with 13% of members revolting against the deal.
The mediocrity of American’s deal has meant AFA-CWA’s strategy has not paid off, resulting in the union looking unreasonable and out-of-touch as it tries to push for wage bumps of 28%, which would position United flight attendants’ earnings at the top across all US airlines. This is a major barrier in the negotiations, but it’s a barrier that is completely of AFA-CWA’s own making with United flight attendants paying the ultimate price. While being on stagnant pay for four years might have been worth it for a significant pay-off, the union is going to have a hard time explaining why it’s taken so long to get a modest increase that is far below the expectations they had set members.
Ground pay compensation
In an industry first, AFA-CWA wants compensation for every second that United flight attendants are on the ground including briefings, check-ins, and delays. It’s simply a more extreme version of boarding pay. For context, historically flight attendants were not paid until the plane was in the air, which disproportionately disadvantaged junior flight attendants who work more domestic flights with multiple legs or flights each day. In light of boarding pay not being a concern for veteran flight attendants, who have the unions in a chokehold, it was unlikely to ever become reality.
This was until 2022, when Delta Air Lines decided to unilaterally introduce boarding pay, with flight attendants receiving 50% of their regular hourly rate while on the ground. Delta, being non-unionized, avoided lengthy negotiations and the need to carefully balance the competing interests of senior and junior flight attendants, a regular constraint faced by unions. Since then boarding pay has become more of an industry norm with both American and Southwest airlines following suit. Recent reports have shown that flight attendants can earn nearly $450 extra per month in boarding pay, with some veteran flight attendants even opting for more domestic flights to take advantage of the compensation.
Given that Delta, Southwest, and American have introduced boarding pay, it would be reasonable for AFA-CWA to demand the measure in their negotiations. However, the union is not satisfied with replicating this, ignoring the relative novelty of boarding pay and the drawn out negotiations that their peers at American faced in order to achieve it. Instead, the union has stated that they need to one-up all the other airlines and will only be happy with ground pay. Again, AFA-CWA seems far more unreasonable than management in this context given they feel that United flight attendants are entitled to leapfrog over boarding pay and receive ground pay immediately.
Healthcare benefits for all
United’s union is trying to keep a quirk in their existing contract that allows flight attendants to keep benefits even when their flying hours are zero. This encourages senior flight attendants to stay at United rather than retire because they can keep their benefits for free, all the while draining the coffers for hardworking and more junior flight attendants. This is an obvious measure that AFA-CWA should sacrifice to focus on more important and universal benefits such as wage increases.
The only reason they haven’t got rid of the demand is because senior flight attendants, who benefit from this, are dragging their heels. As Gary Leff, blogger at View From The Wing, points out, “They have a huge incentive to care. They’ll make noise, they’ll campaign for or against union leaders”. These beneficiaries have absolutely no qualms pushing the priorities of junior flight attendants further down AFA-CWA’s agenda, regardless of whether this stalls discussions.
This points to a wider inconsistency in AFA-CWA’s argument because while they are keen to frame the only conflict as between United management and United flight attendants, the reality is that the contract discussions are stalling because of the competing and often contradictory interests between senior and junior flight attendants. Whether AFA-CWA wanted to or not, the memo revealed this stark reality.
In conclusion, despite its best efforts, AFA-CWA is looking increasingly irrational and partisan in its negotiations with United. Not only are the union’s demands unrealistic and unheard of in the industry, they are prioritising the interests of senior flight attendants within the union over more junior members of staff who need the money and benefits more urgently. Like so many New Years resolutions before, these demands will likely be abandoned by January.