Alaska Airlines flight attendants have just voted down the contract their union negotiated. It would have given them an immediate 18% raise and then 3% raises in subsequent years. They’d receive boarding pass and retro pay back to 2022. The vote wasn’t close – 68 to 32 against.
The ratification vote for the 2024 Tentative Agreement (TA) closed at 12 PM PT today with a 92.4% participation rate of eligible voters. Thank you for participating in the ratification vote. Results:
68% voted AGAINST the agreement
32% voted FOR the agreement pic.twitter.com/vCeBNZcexZ— AFA Alaska (@AFAAlaska) August 14, 2024
This was a strong contract for an airline that historically hasn’t paid flight attendants as well as peers. It brought them much closer, especially with boarding pay, and was what Sara Nelson’s AFA-CWA believed was the best they could do.
Southwest Airlines flight attendants rejected their first tentative agreement, and wound up with a record-breaking deal that set the precedent not just for wage rates but also retro pay. So that likely encouraged crewmembers here, who note that with hubs in places like Seattle and San Francisco they’re based in high cost cities.
Watching Alaska flight crew reject their contract right after voting opened on a new American Airlines flight attendant deal would seem to make the no voices stronger there. On Monday I outlined the reasons that American’s LAX flight attendant base President publicly came out against the deal.
Knowing that a five year contract might be in force for up to a decade (since terms don’t expire under the Railway Labor Act, they just become amendable), the stakes and concerns especially over work rules are high.
- They didn’t get the reduced reserve levels they were looking for.
- There was no snap up provision, so Delta and United flight attendants could quickly wind up earning more.
- And many flight attendants prefer increased wage rates rather than boarding pay – since most now realize they weren’t really “not getting paid for boarding,” and boarding pay benefits junior crew (who work more short flights and spend more time boarding) at the expense of senior crew (who spend relatively more time inflight).
The issues in the American deal aren’t centered around hourly rates, profit sharing, or retro pay. They got those! The issues at American are work rules, whether they’ll keep up with competitor pay, and whether the union prioritized the right things in negotiations.
Just how much better Alaska flight attendants can do is unclear, but they’ll unquestionably have to wait. Members voted down immediate raises and big retro pay checks, in the hopes that more will come later and that economic conditions don’t change, making it harder for the airline to deliver. Alaska currently is performing well financially.
American is performing less well, making waiting to get a better deal riskier. Some flight attendants are pledging to fight this contract, willing to make that wager.
just as is true for AA FAs, rejection of this deal will set in place a very long process to try to get a new contract which will not see any improvement in terms.
Add in that the industry is softening while going into the winter and the AS-HA merger, and AS FAs are the last thing on the company’s agenda.
The Alaska FAs in the photo appear to have been nibbling and growing on the FC food .
Hmmmm…. 92.4% of eligible voters participated. 100 votes counted. That means less than 110 eligible voters. I would assume there are more than 110 Alaska on-board service crew members.
I think the AA FAs are gonna get hosed. The company is going to approve whatever contract, and then a few mos later file for Chap 11 and then its back to the bargaining table.
Not sure why Alaska voted it down, the TA seems fairly good.
why do arm chair experts think declaring bk is a simple process. remember 3 strikes & you’re out. thats why its called UA corp not CO bc CAL went bk twice. AA mgmt has a plan B in case the fa TA gets rejected.
In first paragraph it should be boarding pay not pass.
I wonder how much of the AS deal is worries about what happens post HA given the route network will dramatically change and how that could impact some of the more senior AS FAs. Realize we are still years from integration if it even goes through but it has to be on their minds.
Nice coverage, Gary. I understand why they voted as they did but it seems a dangerous ploy.
Dumb sky waitresses. Of course you can’t fix stupid and love to see union flunkies get hosed
As I sit in the lounge at my fancy San Francisco hotel, enjoying my Australian 9 weeks per year of paid leave, I can only marvel at the anti-employee comments in this thread. (Plus the recent Musk-Trump conversation about firing strikers).
All Americans endure terms and conditions of work that their peers in other wealthy countries would not touch with a bargepole.
Every Australian with a university degree is eligible for an E3 visa to the USA allowing them and their family to live and work in the US indefinitely. Yet no more than 6,000 applications have ever been received in a year because American working conditions are so repellent to people from advanced countries.
So I’m with the flight attendants here. Why should they accept a lousy offer when collective bargaining can get them something better?
Especially given that the airline has $1.9 billion on hand to buy Hawaiian Airlines. They have clearly been massively underpaying their staff.
Collective bargaining is how we got our superior working conditions in Europe and Australia. And I hope it works for the flight attendants too.
I have such pity for people who sell commoditized labor. We all should. New time I leave an AA flight instead of saying a rehearsed, canned THANK YOU!, i will say “I pity you!.”
@todikaios. I had the same thought, but look at the tweet — it’s actually percentages.
Economy decelerating, bookings falling off a cliff, labor costs exploding. This is a dangerous game AS FAs are playing. Their leverage is decreasing not increasing. AA might as well approve whatever FAs want. It will get crammed down in BK next year.
@ Tim Dunn — Of course they will end up with a better deal. Good for them!
Realist, what is the plan B AA mgmt has in mind?…my guess would be to drag their feet for as long as possible as the NMB will allow. Should there be a change in administrations with the upcoming election my guess would be a NMB that is less union friendly.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Does Alaska’s FA contract have mandatory arbitration for their first joint CBA after a merger? Their pilots certainly do, which is how they ended up not getting scope in the first post Virgin merger joint CBA. If that’s the case AS fa’s may get royally screwed by voting this down if they don’t get another TA before a joint CBA with HA.
It will take at least 18 months to get a new contract. 18 months of losing $$$. At least 3 years to make up the lost wages they will not get now. A senior attendant would have been better off voting for it if they were retiring within 5 years. If tRump gets in they may never get a new contract
Does union leadership at AS resign since the rank and file employees overwhelmingly had no confidence in the deal they negotiated and felt comfortable bringing to their members? As was stated by others, with the economy decelerating, unemployment rising, and airline profitability less than 2023 levels, I struggle to see how FAs will get a better deal.
This is so dumb thing to do!!
All you covered was the money. It’s not just about the money. It’s about Work rules and the language in the contract. Too many lines of, “ Up to the companies discretion”. WTF
Does that mean for the flight attendants? Clearer language is needed in the contract.
In regards to the money, Alaska has been making money handover fist and been paying the mucky mucks on top way too much money. Time to share the wealth with those who do the front line work.
realist- except some of us arent arm chair experts. Some of us might be (or were) airline execs and/or senior management. And some of us could be going on 30+ years in the business.
Reason number 752 why I could never run a company. I would never make an offer better in any way. Each day you wait, you lose the new pay and can never make it up with backpay or a better deal.
@DavidF – you can brag about your time off and other benefits. Personally I prefer our capitalistic system where those that work hard, take risks and are willing to move for opportunities are rewarded. I’m now retired (hence the name) and spend my time traveling around the world, playing golf and gambling (mainly poker including annual trips to the WSOP) but I worked for almost 40 years in IT which involved relocating my family 4 times across the US. I ended up as CTO of one national company, CIO of 2 others and a consulting partner with a different firm (plus ran my own consultancy for a while). I made 7 figures a number of years and high 6 figures many others (including late 90s and early 2000s when a million a year was REAL money). This led me to have a lifestyle in retirement that is incredibly enjoyable and I have generational wealth to help my kids meet their dreams.
That type of success isn’t as common in countries with heavy social programs and policies that protect all (even low and marginal performers like many union members). Not necessarily blaming them but if there is no incentive to work harder or take risk why do it. BTW I grew up lower middle class, my dad died (with no insurance) when I was 16 and I went to a state university so definitely wasn’t born with a lot of benefits.
@ DavidF. Spoken like a true Socialists party member. You must work for the OZ government in some capacity. (Governments can be very benevolent when giving away other people’s money.) I happen to know that there are many in OZ that work on a “casual labor” basis and I doubt that they are sitting in your “fancy San Francisco Hotel” enjoying 9 weeks of paid vacation. I’ll stick with the Capitalist system . . . it’s not perfect but it’s better than anything else out there. Check with the Ansett folks to see how they feel about unions rejecting a contract. Good people mislead by a handful power hungry union officials.
If you think that I’m anti-union, you are mistaken. Unions in PRIVATE industry make the job worth exactly what they can negotiate. Unions in government, no so much. Who is negotiating on the taxpayers side.
Dear Alert. I was gonna comment to that effect. Perhaps bring back a weight goal concerning pay raises for FAs
Dear One Trippe
I totally agree. But where’s the competition anymore? With out it there is no capitalism. We’re down to three majors and about the same for aircraft manufacturers.
@DavidF—thanks for your clear-eyed opinion of jobs in the U.S. economy. I realized this 20+ years ago after traveling the world, and especially Oz, wondering why the hell I couldn’t enjoy benefits like those. I figured out a way to retire with full gov’t benefits while I watched friends and family work their asses off for years, never really getting ahead with republicans in control. Bye ‘Merica. I’m happy living in Europe and Mexico now.