Tag Archives for union.
Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson took to social media to claim that United Airlines flight attendants are being forced to sleep on cots in the airport amidst disruptions. But the photo she shares doesn’t appear to support that allegation.
The American Airlines flight attendants union is in contract negotiations and is proposing to make schedules and quality of life worse for all crewmembers hired after the contract is signed.
If adopted, the union’s proposal would require new employees to sit on ‘standby’ to pick up trips for three years, effectively making them work in service of better schedules for all existing flight attendants.
The 1,500 hour rule leads to less well-trained, less-experienced pilots not more experienced pilots. They get hired by commercial airlines and go through remedial training to fix the bad habits they get into building up hours for hours’ sake.
Last year former APFA President Bob Ross was found to have misappropriated funds while running the union. An arbitrator’s award covered charges he billed a family vacation to the union credit card, improperly billed his personal furniture (and bedding and even toilet paper) to the union, and of having the union pay for a personal office he wasn’t entitled to among other alleged misdeeds.
Ross filed suit to overturn the arbitrator’s judgment, arguing first that he shouldn’t be singled out among past union Presidents for financial impropriety, and then that the accusations against him are all part of a plot for Sara Nelson’s AFA-CWA to take over the union.
United Airlines pilots haven’t just voted to authorize a strike vote, they have done so unanimously according to their union. Here’s what to expect.
Delta Air Lines will be sharing the names of flight crew with passengers a day in advance of travel. Passengers will be able to recognize crew for their service. Even though it’s only first names, crew can opt out, and only positive comments will be passed along, a union trying to organize flight attendants at the airline is blasting the program.
It’s believed that the contract is for four years, with pay rates comparable to Delta’s new deal (which we’ve already expected and the company had publicly committed to) and some improvements for pilots on scheduling (limitation on the kinds of trips the company can require pilots to work).
Delta’s pilot contract costs it $7 billion more over the course of four years. The exact costs to American isn’t yet clear because the details haven’t been released – although the increase likely wipes out the carrier’s current run rate of profits.
The Association of Flight Attendants has told its members to prepare for a strike vote. This riles up the members, and makes it sound like the union is militant, when in fact they’re continuing to negotiate with the company and if all continues to proceed apace they won’t end up in a strike.
This is the union playing politics with its own members, not against the company.
The pilot union has taken a strike authorization vote, but isn’t legally permitted to strike because they haven’t received federal permission to do so (and that would only come after a 30 day ‘cooling off period’). Pilots are getting frustrated over the time it is taking to get to a contract, though the airline has publicly committed to substantial raises.
Some pilots do not want to wait, and are suggesting taking matters into their own hands. The mistake they’re making, though, is putting this in writing – and the union, therefore, has taken steps to disavow it.
Say what you will about the business logic of providing United pilots with a richer contract, these aren’t traditional blue collar workers. They aren’t working 80 hour weeks to make ends meet and slowly falling behind, they fly 80 hours a month, and are well-paid, and many of them have side businesses – hardly the image of Cesar Chavez standing up with grape workers, “We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.”
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 »
