JetBlue Flight Attendants Will Unionize

JetBlue’s flight attendants voted to unionize and will be represented by the Transport Workers Union. Over 85% of eligible flight attendants voted, and nearly two-thirds of those were in favor.

Already the union is talking about ‘fighting back’ in anticipation of not getting what it wants on wages, inability to fire flight attendants who perform poorly, and a ‘seat at the table’ in the event of a merger.

Unionization alone isn’t the death knell for customer service (though it doesn’t help). Southwest Airlines is unionized. However they have their great creation myth, they’re the underdogs even now that they’re the largest domestic airline. They’ve focused on building a culture of ‘fun’. And they’re still willing to fire people.

The airline’s pilots voted to form a union in 2014 and are still in the process of negotiating their first contract.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. They’re cheering down in Atlanta about this as they continue to dump capacity against Mint.

  2. Ask the American and US Airways flight attendants how effective that “seat at the table” strategy turned out.

  3. What is your evidence for saying that unionization doesn’t help customer service? That’s a pretty broad statement. I’d love to know what its based on.

  4. @Ben

    Take 10 flights on Delta then 10 flights on AA and base it on your own experience if you like…

  5. Great for JetBlue flight attendants! More industries need to unionize. Capital owners have way too much power and leverage over the worker and the customer in this world. People over profits!

  6. @Gary – Why does the union object to it being difficult to fire employees? Also, why can’t the airline fire employees? I must be missing something here.

  7. Ah man and I loved Jet Blue! Now we are going to get crappy, self serving, horrible service with FA’s that pissed at life!

  8. It’s ok they are there primarily for your safety so service really doesn’t matter anyway.

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