The union that represents tens of thousands of flight attendants at United Airlines claims the Chicago-based carrier is demanding ‘far-reaching’ concessions in new contract negotiations and is presenting misleading facts to crew members in a bid to make their offer seem better than what it actually is.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) told its members in a rare weekend memo that the demands for concessions being made by United are “unheard of” and have not been seen elsewhere in the aviation industry.
Some of the concessions being demanded by the airline include a requirement for flight attendants to be contactable and ready to respond at a moment’s notice during their layovers when they are meant to be resting or enjoying their off-time.
Other concessions being tabled by United include getting rid of additional payments for working at night, reducing the amount of rest flight attendants enjoy on their layovers, making working days longer, and introducing a minimum amount of flying hours for crew members to access medical benefits.
United also wants to “eliminate PTO” for flight attendants.
AFA listed 24 concessions proposed by United, although the union warned that this wasn’t a complete list, as it attempts to convince its own members that the changes to the contract weren’t just a “couple of tweaks” that the airline had portrayed as being.
"Recently, management set up a website containing misleading information about negotiations, including dramatically inflating the number of hours Flight Attendants fly,” the memo slammed.
“As a pointer to management, if you have to assume a Flight Attendant flies 125 hours every month to make your proposals look good, perhaps you need to go back to the drawing board.”
The memo continued: “In addition to being factually incorrect, it attempts to directly negotiate with individual Flight Attendants rather than engage in their legal obligation to negotiate with our union.”
Last week, AFA’s United master executive council met in Washington, D.C., to discuss a new negotiation strategy after it sacked the old contract negotiating committee, which had tried and failed to reach a deal with United for nearly three years.
The decision to oust the negotiators came just days after federal mediators decided to delay any further negotiations between United and AFA until the New Year.
Saturday’s message appears to reflect concerns that United’s flight attendant workforce isn’t entirely convinced with the direction that their union has taken in bargaining up to this point.
The union, however, attempted to reassure jittery flight attendants, telling them it was “aggressively” pushing to secure a contract, but countered that the concessions were a “major obstacle.”
The flight attendant union has demanded an inflation-busting 28% pay raise in the contract’s first year, followed by 4% every year after that as part of an open-ended agreement, along with a ratification bonus, retro pay, and a new pay concept known as ‘ground duty pay.’
Along with its shopping list of concessions, United has told the union that the pay demands are a non-starter and that it will only offer the same pay raises recently locked in by flight attendants at American Airlines.
United has also refused the demand for retroactive pay or a ratification bonus.
This story originally appeared on PYOK.
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