In the past couple of years, we’ve seen pilots at most major US airlines get lucrative new contracts. We’re now seeing flight attendants trying to get their fair share of wage increases, even though industry economics have worsened a bit.
Continue reading: United Airlines Flight Attendants Vote To Authorize Strike
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
My guess is it will force United management’s hands if they don’t come to an agreement by summer 2025. My friend is a UA flight attendant and says the company has made next to zero progress over the span of 3 years in terms of negotiations and are only asking for concessions. They could be like AA and start to lose revenue. Some people will not pick an airline that has even the possibility of a strike if they have serious plans.
It's really stunning that UA's FA leadership hasn't voted for a strike authorization yet.
It was clear with UA's pilots that UA would wait to be the last of the big 3 to sign a contract after the first pilot contract was shot down by pilot membership. Delta more than doubled the valued of what UA had offered which DL pilots accepted and the DL pilot compensation standard because the industry standard.
DL then proceeded to raise its FA wages, adding boarding pay on top of pay raises. WN sent a contract to its FA leadership which rejected it. AA's FA leadership has been talking tough for years and still doesn't have a contract.
UA FAs are fools for allowing AA FAs and their leadership to dictate the pace at which UA should settle with its FAs.
UA FAs will never get the money back that they are losing by waiting no matter how much UA mgmt says they will surpass whatever is offered by any other carrier.
UA FAs need to see their pay raised to at least DL levels including profit sharing and boarding pay and then add in the union dues that DL FAs don't pay. If AFA can't get that for UA FAs, then there is no reason to even have a union.
IMHO most flight attendants in the United States are overpaid. If you compare what you get in service, attitude, and looks from international carriers, it's clear why America still bans other airlines from operating domestic routes. They can't handle the competition.
Channeling a former and lifelong UA flight attendant ( part of my family) " take your cookies when they are passed "
Dude, most countries don't allow foreign airlines to operate domestic routes. 5th Freedom flights are few and far between. That actually is a valid reason for protectionism, you don't want a foreign carrier flooding your domestic market, running your own airlines out of business, then cutting capacity and hiking fares. China was doing this in the Pacific market pre-COVID, you could find $300-500 round trip trans-Pacific flights which is just utterly ludicrous and unsustainable.
Shipbuilding is another good example, the Chinese government subsidizes Chinese shipyards to the tune of billions of dollars, and as a result Chinese shipyards are the cheapest place for shipping lines to buy new ships from and have around 40% market share today. Surpassing the previous two building powerhouses, South Korea and Japan (which also give heavy subsidies to their shipbuilding industry to keep them competitive). Do I need to spell out for you what an economic disaster it would be for 40% of the world's new cargo ships to get pulled from the market if China decides it really does want to re-unite Taiwan by force?