Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson was the guest on the Airlines Confidential podcast this week. She shared the story of how she helped secure a $54 billion cash grab for the airlines during the pandemic, and about getting involved in union activism after 9/11.
Nelson said that “the biggest complaint I heard from flight attendants was ‘I didn’t feel seen, I didn’t feel respected'” and said that people didn’t realize that there were unions then (which seems like an odd claim). By her own standard then, she’s failed her members.
- During their current contract negotiations with United Airlines, Nelson’s AFA-CWA created a scoring system reporting on flight attendant unhappiness at the carrier.
- 91% of the union’s members reported feeling unvalued by their company and 99% felt their issues are unresolved. So Nelson hasn’t made them feel seen and respected.
Ted Reed has a new book, Unions Flying High: Airline Labor Power in the 21st Century which argues that airline unions have made a real comeback from bankruptcies and industry turmoil, winning big pay raises. He focuses on Jason Ambrosi of ALPA and Sara Nelson as AFA-CWA as heroes. However, Nelson goes on TV a lot but I don’t think she is actually effective where it matters most for flight attendants.
- Nelson, who came up as United cabin crew, hasn’t won a new contract at United. Her flight attendants haven’t received a raise in five years.
- Big raises for flight attendants at other airlines have mostly represented adjusting for inflation. Contracts agreed to before the pandemic have been updated to current dollars, plus a little bit. (Nelson’s United flight attendants are still earning pre-pandemic wages.)
- That’s largely because there’s no union premium anymore in most jobs. There used to be. The union wage premium was generally estimated between 10% – 20%, though it largely disappeared 20 years ago. Workers do not make more at unionized firms than they would without unions.
That’s not true in all sectors. Pilot wages benefit heavily from occupational licensing restrictions (like the 1,500 hour rule) that make it costly and time-consuming to become a pilot, limiting entry into the profession. That’s government regulation reducing the supply of pilots driving up wages.
- ALPA scores victories for pilots by lobbying government, more than at the bargaining table, but pilots also have far more leverage in their ability to shut down an airline than flight attendants have – in addition to being much harder to replace. Replacement flight attendants can be trained in a matter of weeks.
It’s notable, I think, that non-union Delta flight attendants earn more than any flight attendants represented by AFA-CWA. Also, that after Delta unilaterally gave its cabin crew a big raise (an industry first, worth perhaps $8 an hour on average, separate from annual raises) with boarding pay, AFA-CWA represented crew at Spirit chose not to bargain for this. She called Delta’s boarding pay a trick. And months ago said she was perhaps months away from organizing Delta flight attendants.
Nelson meandered in her response to Scott McCartney over whether she has ambitions beyond her role representing flight attendants. She reportedly lost out on the opportunity to head the AFL-CIO, but she wields significant political power. It’s just not always her dues-paying members seeing the direct benefit.
Reed’s book is worth reading for the people and stories behind the contract negotiations. Maybe it’s even useful to have her as an ally (though her influence may be waning after losing a fight to reform rules at her own union.) Yet she’s not generating higher wages for her members than they would receive if they just went to work for Delta.
Sara Nelson more cares about her “glory speech” on left media than actual work for her members. Not even mentioning the 5500 furlough during Covid, so much no concession to let go 5500…..
afa makes me speechless
I’ll pass on Ted Reed’s book.
anyone that doesn’t understand that it was Delta that led the legacy carriers in post-covid pay raises isn’t going to come to anywhere close the correct conclusion.
Whether DL knew they would have to hike pay as much as they ended up doing, they clearly were generating the profits to justify a settlement for their pilots that was worth twice what UA offered its pilots in the deal that the UA pilots rejected.
DL followed their pilot deal w/ the first massive across the board raise for the rest of its workforce.
DL also knew by that point that many of its competitors could not handle the huge increases in labor costs – and that is a big part of why WN has fallen so quickly in its financial performance. AA has managed to maintain its same low margins while UA is the furthest behind in increasing pay for its employees even as it and its fans tout how well they are doing financially; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that UA employees are being hoodwinked into trading the success of their company for their own financial well-being.
B6 may never be a strong competitor again. AS might be better positioned than other carriers but they have alot of pay raises to pass out to be paying their people DL and WN comparable salaries.
DL, not Sara Nelson and not Alpa, set the pace of labor esp. post covid. Pretending the last 5 years didn’t happen is inexcusable ignorance.
Leadership deserves critique. However, hating on unions generally is not a serious position. I suspect there will some who take this as an opportunity to ‘punch down’ on workers, labor, etc. If that is honestly how you feel, then I hope you get to experience life without such privilege so that you may finally earn some well-deserved empathy.
Look for… the Union Label.
Need to find a new union like the united pilots did. They got a great contract with their new union. AFA has done nothing.
Sarah Nelson is a shining example of a simp who believes her own press releases.
So this is directed towards Gary please go on record and do comparisons for other airlines and how long it took them to rewatch Tentative Agreements with their flight attendants.
Was a AA less than 5 years?
How about Southwest?
Oh and the latest Alaska?
While you’re clearly anti union how about you include this information in your article. I’m waiting. I’m waiting…
*reach Tentative Agreements with their flight attendants
What is the status of the PSA contract negotiations originating fall, 2024 with AFA-CWA?
Actually…..Five years collecting a paycheck while many people were not. Nobody was “failed”.
Ignore most of your constitutes, give sweet deals to a few, and claim nobody has gotten all constitutes more. Sounds like union head and politician are pretty much the same.
Why do you blame the union and not the companies! The companies are the ones that have failed the workforce! At this point I would not be surprised if you are on the company payroll.
I wonder how many flight attendants at United are putting off retirement to make sure that they get the retroactive pay. I suspect that that group would almost all be unhappy.
Allowing pilots who have less than 20 months’ experience on the job (1,500 flight hours) carry 400 passengers is not the correct answer to pilot shortage.
That’s already lower than doctors, who require three years before they can write an antibiotic prescription.
From 2016: “Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. Their figure, published May 3 in The BMJ, surpasses the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s third leading cause of death—respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year.”
The average yearly death rate due to commercial passenger pilot error in the USA is very low.
Gary, you’ve certainly shown that you’re not a fan of unions but while you’re right about Nelson’s ineptitude at her – well… job – the reason Delta flight attendants are better paid is to overcome the allure of unions. Delta is willing to pay extra to make this a nonissue.
I’m sorry, is United management showing up at negotiations begging to give their crew a raise, and Sara Nelson is telling them no??
Wow, what a revolution in labor relations. Corporations, which literally used to bomb labor organizers 100 years ago when those labor organizers tried to organize and demand better pay and conditions, are now begging to give those workers a raise! Whereas so much of everything else they do is about increasing value for shareholders- in fact they’re practically obliged to do so- here all the friendly corporation wants to do is pay their workers more, and Sara Nelson is telling them no! What a scandal! The side that is always, always trying to give its workers as little as they can get away with in negotiations, now here is the valiant hero! Delta’s pay rates have nothing to do with them being a significantly more profitable airline! Delta bragging that they made 50% of all U.S. airline industry profits in 2024 has nothing to do with their workforce being significantly less unionized! Truly amazing!
Yeesh. Professional gaslighting hack.
not to mention she is an antisemitic parasite
Pilots at UA had a longer wait for a contract than FAs have had. Pilots contract becoming amendable years earlier.
Whatever increased effectiveness of ALPA over AFA does not show itself to be true when you actually look at the facts..
@doug – That’s a new one. I’ve read lots of bad things about her on a number of fronts but not being an antisemitic person. As to parasite I’m not sure what makes her in particular a parasite. Please elaborate as if there are facts out there then they should be shared.
@Christian – but that’s the point – it’s far better for Delta flight attendants to have a union as a stalking horse than actually to have one. If they signed on with AFA, they’d likely wind up with less pay as a result of lower profits, pay union dues, and go years at a time without a new contract during which their pay rates are frozen.
She is awful. Didn’t she say people shouldn’t be allowed to fly during the pandemic?
@Christian — I’m with you. Even if we disagree with Ms. Nelson’s leadership, there is no good reason to dehumanize (calling her a ‘parasite’) or to falsely accuse her (of ‘antisemitism’ or say ‘pedophilia’ or ‘murder’) simply because we or anyone isn’t happy with an outcome. I’m tired of the hate speech on here—keep calling it out.
@doug — Not cool, man.
I assume the claim regarding antisemitism comes from her support for pro-Hamas protestors
@Brian – as i recall, she said she wanted a halt to all leisure travel during the pandemic
@Gary Leff — Arguably, that stance is anti-Israeli, not necessarily antisemitic, but, after the horrors of the October 7th attacks, I recognize it’s not all that different… still, there is important nuance and distinction there. For instance, some Israelis and supporters of Israel are not hard-right, one-state, pro-Bibi, etc. Just as not all Americans are pro-Putin.
On leisure travel during the pandemic, I did, as I am sure you did, too–so, are we the baddies?
I notice how you left out Samuelsen who has done a great job at getting really good flight attendant contracts. That’s because you have no use for union heads who defend and help their membership. Leff, you are a joke.
@Abe Carr — Gary is no joke; he was literally just quoted as an ‘expert’ in the New York Times! I’d say that may even be an upgrade from ‘thought leader’ unless we’re against the experts (you know, the whole anti-woke nonsense).
@Gary seems like a weird thing to say she has failed when the second largest FA group that she leads ratified a big contract this week…
Also it is not solely a union’s job to make employees happy. Sure their aim is to make employees happier, but an employees’ happiness is definitely driven more by their employer than their union. You also have no way of telling what those scores from her measures (that she literally implemented to use as a bargaining chip with the company, so you know the unhappier the employees look the better her leverage…) would be if the union was not there, they might be even more unhappy and therefore she would have been a success.
If you were a union leader, would you take a contract that is bad for your members for them to vote down or keep fighting for a better contract Gary? You seem to be hitting her for doing the latter.
@Andrew – Alaska Airlines, ratification was the strategy because they’re betting a Trump-dominated NMB won’t authorize a strike