In a blunt internal message to employees, United Airlines says it has offered flight attendants the highest pay rates in the industry, but claims union leaders are refusing to agree to the needed tradeoffs. After five years without raises, here’s what’s holding up a deal.
- United Airlines flight attendants haven’t had a raise in 5 years. Their contract has been open.
- The company and union came to a deal that cabin crew rejected.
- Now, the union and the airline are trying to find a way to get a contract done when they’ve already bargained about as far as they could.
- And United has been pretty aggressive messaging directly to employees on where things stand, as they see it.
A week ago the airline messaged a pitch for algorithmic scheduling to gain cost efficiencies that allow for some of the higher pay demands that flight attendants are asking for. The airline has said they’d consider not just ‘boarding pay’ (pioneered by non-union Delta, and now something other contracts are asking for) but actual ‘sit pay’ for time spent in the airport.
If you want to understand ‘PBS scheduling’ I’ve been told this explanation I detailed of what it is, and why airlines like it but (some) flight attendants don’t, is the clearest and most accureate folks have read. However I did leave out that flight attendants can easily ‘dispute’ the schedules they’re given now, when they think they’ve been improperly assigned based on priority, but with less opaque algorithms doing this scheduling this becomes more difficult.
This week, economics were the centerpiece of our AFA negotiating session.
We’re focused on delivering a contract with immediate, industry-leading pay for flight attendants at every step of the pay scale, from new hires to our most senior employees.
United offered a proposal that would deliver the highest flight attendant pay among U.S. carriers. Over the term of the agreement, starting on day one to the amendable date of the contract, pay for EVERY flight attendant at EVERY level would be top of industry.
While we are making real progress on several priority items including sit pay — there does remain a significant gap between our respective positions on how to offset the cost of the AFA’s new proposals.
Throughout these discussions, United has presented solutions and pathways to deliver improvements while keeping the overall agreement balanced, competitive and financially sustainable for our airline. These proposals have been rejected by AFA leadership, and the union has thus far failed to present cost offsets or alternative proposals that would help balance the contract.
We remain committed to reaching an agreement that reflects the quality of your work and one that delivers meaningful improvements. We look forward to continuing discussions on the details of the AFA’s latest proposals, including one on signing bonuses, at our next session scheduled for March 3–6.
Please remember to check our Negotiations Hub, which has previous updates and helpful information addressing frequently asked questions.
Nathan Lopp
VP Labor Relations
The message appears meant to shape rank and file beliefs over who is being reasonable, and pre-frame any slowdown in negotiations over union intransigence (“rejected,” “failed to present cost offsets”).
They’re anchoring to “immediate” and “industry-leading” suggesting that any union demand above the company’s current offer are unreasonable by definition – they’ve “already offered the top.” They also name “AFA leadership” rather than “the union” to create distance between members and leadership, implying the leadership is the obstacle and members should pressure them.
That’s not even wrong. Right now the total value of the package is largely known and they’re just working through the details of how to allocate it (and to whom). But, in United’s telling, the union hasn’t gotten to that part yet. They offer progress on “sit pay” which really would be industry-leading, though it naturally comes at the expense of other things flight attendants might want.
United can pay as much or slightly more than everyone else – but not materially more than that. The union already argued that the prior tentative agreement, voted down by 71% of flight attendants, was for as much money as it was possible to get. (Essentially, the union bet wrong on how to allocate that money, they misunderstood the priorities of their members.)
The ultimate message is: we’ll pay you more, but you have to give us productivity, flexibility, or other items to net it out.
We don’t yet know actual numbers and structure of current offers; retro pay and effective date; boarding pay and duty rights or minimum time guarantees, etc. So this isn’t detailed – but it clearly frames where the airline is – top of market pay, but not top of market plus everything else layered on top.
Talk is cheap. Why does management and the capital class typically hate and exploit labor? It’s not because those ‘pesky’ unions are refusing to allow members to get paid more… that’s absurd. Workers know better.
Maybe they should give the flight attendance the rest of the first class seats that aren’t being occupied by pilots yet?
“fank and file beliefs”
wow… that is new.
UA knows full well that frustration is boiling over w/ FAs. The union knows they have to deliver but ultimately fank and file FAs deliver service – which have the high potential of harming UA’s customers.
the bottom line is that UA’s costs are going to go up substantially just because of the increased salaries… UA is trying to offset that with better productivity but all of the talk about UA being even remotely close to DL in financial performance will quickly come to an end. UA is not financially or operationally in the same camp as DL and these raises will ensure that UA’s financial results will be squarely between bottom performing AA and top performing DL – in other words, mediocre at best.
Operationally, UA is much closer to AA – which isn’t as bad as many think they are – than near the top where DL and WN are.
I am pro-labor, but not blindly so. The senior people in this union have mis-handled these negotiations from the beginning, making repeated misjudgments. If they had negotiated a less than perfect contract years ago, they would now be renegotiating an even better one. They are now really stuck in a bad place.
They need to be called out on vague references to keep their claims entirely out-of-context. “Industry’s Highest Pay” only counts if you get paid for all hours worked or required to be in a specific place. Any “required” activities (including travel to/from work) caused by the employer that exceeds a normal “to/from work once per day” schedule can impact the reality of “Highest Pay”. I’m in another industry entirely, but those standards apply everywhere when management starts tossing out generalized statements with “details to be filled in later”.
Industry-leading wages hmm that doesn’t mean much in the world’s worst country for inequality, where the rich are flooding the internet (via Gary and the rest of their media shills) with AI-promulgated messaging about how unions are standing in the way of progress, and their pay-offer is wonderful and “industry leading” ….
Hahahahaha – industry-leading? Leading a modern-day procession of manacled slaves to be ground into the dust as inflation eats their miserable wage.
Union leaders not caring about anything other than themselves. Typical and sad.
COPY EDITORS ENQUIRE WITHIN
So, Kirby is offering pay that’s a smidge better than competitors and makes that up (with interest) by reducing other things. Is United giving up on putting FA’s into crappy hotels in BFE, for example?Given Kirby’s mindset I doubt that. Characteristically, Kirby lays all blame on other parties and accepts none at all for himself. What a piece of… work he is.
UA FA should agree to PBS. Hands down the best bidding system
Ever.
AA flight attendant here. I have to laugh. UA is totally missing out. PBS is great. After a couple months of trial and error, it now takes me minutes to bid, and I get all the days off I need, and a nice variety of all International trips. Enjoy your low pay and paper bid packets lol
Typical pro-corporate ball coddler of an article. If you’ve never been a FA, you have absolutely NO idea what “flexibility” means. This proposal, although with high wages, may f*** with the bottom 50% of flight attendants who have less than 20 years of service. And do you know why Delta was the first airline to implement “boarding pay?” To keep a union out. They’ll wake up one day to Delta’s corporate greed, but until then, United is the BEST airline in the Country and will ONLY fly them. The Bargaining Committee is made up of more than just senior flight attendants. There are MEC committees, LEC committees, etc., I read your articles to see how deep down the corporate coc* you can get when you keep sucking them off…
You need to understand how airlines will eke, we’ll give you a $10 raise but we want $90 in concessions.
Airlines, like all public companies, have a fiduciary responsibility to they shareholders. This limits what the overall pay packages can provide while being competitive. Higher fares will lead to less seats sold. Needing more flight attendants because of scheduling inefficiencies means less pay per flight attendant available. To keep their jobs, the union leadership over promised what they could deliver, and the rank and file are disappointed.
I’m sure there are some flight attendants waiting for the signing bonus so they can quit, but the union leadership is stuck between mad members and what they can realistically deliver. As an example, the city-center hotels cost more than suburban hotels, and flight attendants are paying for those rooms out of their pockets in the form of lower wages. Do they want the money, or the convenience of walking to shops and restaurants? They aren’t getting both. I’m not sure flight attendants really get that.
I beleave in the FA and the AFA. I don’t like the door closed pay starts, door opens pay stops. That BS. Look at the medical cost as it goes up what united has offered will be gone well before the amendable date of their CBA.
Has any one asked Scott why he does not fly the airline he works for?
The board of directors looks only to exploit the worker and the community it serves. All at the expense of the passengers. Oh wait the insurance company will pay out if the plane don’t fly. I can go on and on about safety with the airline. These first responders deserve the same respect we give all first responders.
Fly safe AFA
United and the Union need to start stepping up. We absolutely were not offered leading industry pay..thats a joke. Corporate greed is real. United gets ALOT of free work from Fa’s , we want to be compensated for some of that time and have some quality of life. Thats it. We dont want top pay with a bad quality of life. Take care of the FA’s that help run this company.
And why can’t they allocate more resources to the FA’s? Oh right, they have to keep allocating for greater and greater percentages to stock buy-backs, dividends, and obscene executive compensation packages. Toss a few crumbs to the peons that actually do the work and tell them that it is more than they deserve. UA is just another example of how out of balance things have become; the ruling class squeezing people beyond “to the bone” and now after the marrow.
Isn’t working without pay human trafficking? These people make so much money and still greedy as hell. There should be a law. Flight attendants are people who work hard and deserve respect. United has so much contemp for there flight attendants.