United Airlines’ flight attendant union is planning a strike strategy, in hopes of maximizing the impact on operational reliability (thanks to @xJonNYC for reporting this). However, it’ll be some time before they’re able to do this…
United flight attendants need a new contract
In recent months, we’ve seen flight attendants at some major airlines ratify new contracts, giving them much needed raises. For example, we’ve seen this at American and Southwest (Delta flight attendants aren’t unionized, so receive proactive pay raises to stay competitive).
United flight attendants are a notable exception, as they’ve been the last of the major airlines when it comes to negotiating a new contract. At first that was an advantage thanks to pattern bargaining, since they saw what flight attendants at other airlines were able to negotiate, and could go from there.
However, arguably they’re not in quite as good of a situation anymore:
- Management and the union continue to be way off in terms of what they’re willing to settle for (or at least they claim to be)
- While United flight attendants have voted to authorize a strike, the process of having the right to go on strike is complicated, and requires approval from the National Mediation Board
- The National Mediation Board has adjourned for the rest of 2024, so nothing will be happening in the coming weeks
- Even the Biden administration wasn’t willing to really step in and authorize airline strikes, and I can’t imagine that situation will get more pro-labor or pro-union under the Trump administration
- Demand in the airline industry isn’t trending upward quite in the way it was a year ago, so perhaps flight attendants have a little less leverage with their negotiations
Honestly, it’s quite disappointing to see how the two sides can’t come to an agreement. United flight attendants absolutely deserve (and need) pay raises, given the extent to which the cost of living has increased in recent years. It seems pretty clear what their pay should be, based on the contracts ratified at other airlines, and it’s time for the two sides to come to an agreement.
United flight attendant union plots strike strategy
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents United’s 25,000+ flight attendants, is starting to devise a strike strategy, even though flight attendants can’t go on strike yet. Unions love acronyms, and then name of the game here seems to be “GUTS” and “CHAOS.”
The union is seeking flight attendants to volunteer to be put on the confidential “GUTS” list, which stands for “Gearing Up To Strike.” The union describes these flight attendants as “frontline troops” who will be the first called upon in the event of “CHAOS,” which stands for “Creating Havoc Around Our System.”
The idea is that if/when United flight attendants go on strike, the union doesn’t want to orchestrate a widespread strike where most flight attendants aren’t working, since members wouldn’t get paid, and that would get costly for them, and couldn’t last for a long time.
Instead, the union wants to be strategic about having as few flight attendants go on strike as possible, while maximizing the operational impacts. In other words, the union would strategically have people strike in a way that maximizes the number of canceled and delayed flights. As the union describes this:
“CHAOS is effective through its element of surprise. the GUYS list is never published because it would give management a leg up in trying to determine where we might strike first.”
Now, of course this assumes that a strike is authorized at some point. While we’ve seen endless strike authorization votes at US airlines, we still haven’t seen an actual strike among a work group in a very long time.
Keep in mind that it would be illegal for the union to coordinate some sort of a strike without permission, whereby people call in sick (or whatever) to maximize the impact on the operation.
UA FAs
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) December 14, 2024 at 10:26 AM
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Bottom line
United flight attendants aren’t in a good situation when it comes to negotiating a new contract. The union and management can’t agree on a contract, and they’re a long way off from a strike being authorized.
Nonetheless, the union is preparing for a strike by soliciting flight attendants with “GUTS” who are willing to create “CHAOS,” once a strike is authorized. The idea is that rather than going on a widespread strike and shutting the airline down, the union instead wants to be strategic by having a small number of flight attendants go on strike in a way that maximizes the number of delays and cancelations.
What do you make of the United AFA’s CHAOS strategy?
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