United Airlines sent out an email to all of its employees about planned wage increases – but this was meant to go out to only corporate non-union employees – as first reported by aviation watchdog JonNYC. Flight attendants, who remain in protracted negotiations with the airline, are apparently furious. Their last raise was in 2021, and their union is in federal mediation with the carrier.
(That is to say it went to all employees)
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) December 4, 2024
This is being talked about as a huge mistake on United’s part, stoking anger amongst flight attendants. But isn’t it a good reminder simply of how compensation works? The airline is providing annual wage increases for non-union employees. It can’t do that unilaterally for flight attendants.
They aren’t able to just pay more without the union’s ascent even if they want to, but they have an incentive not to because fronting higher wages would make it harder to come to an agreement on a new contract.
American Airlines learned that lesson with mechanics – they gave them much of the raise they could expect in advance, so they had little to offer to get a contract done. That led to their 2019 summer meltdown as mechanics worked-to-rule (at best), and the airline wound up unable to accomplish any of its goals in bargaining in exchange for higher wages, such as getting legacy US Airways mechanics onto the same health plan as everyone else and getting industry-standard rules for performing work out-of-house.
Delta flight attendants get annual raises, in addition to higher profit-sharing payouts than other flight attendants, while crew under amendable contracts are stuck with the terms and wages spelled out in those contracts until a new one is in place. American Airlines flight attendants had received their last raises five years earlier before getting a new contract this year. United flight attendants haven’t seen a raise in nearly four years.
The union at United is asking for:
- They are asking for 3% – 4% more than what American Airlines flight attendants just won.
- The bigger percentage increases are for more senior crew, who already earn more.
- And they are asking for bigger future raises, too. American flight attendants get future-year raises of 2.75%; 3%; 3%; and 3.5%. United flight attendants are asking for 4%.
- And they want these raises year after year. Traditionally there’s a fixed end date to the contract, and wages are frozen until there’s a new contract. That’s why American flight attendants had gotten their last raise in January 2019. Many American flight attendants now worry that their next deal will take four years to negotiate, during which they’ll be without raises.
However, they don’t appear close to a deal. In fact the union just fired its negotiating team and seems to realize that they should have pushed for an agreement faster instead of slow-walking negotiations while waiting for American flight crew to strike a deal first – because the National Mediation Board, which will end up with a majority appointed by incoming President Trump, will have to vote to allow them to strike. They believe they’re about to lose leverage.
Good article, and you are correct, Gary. In working for a multinational for 42 years, I saw this all the time (not regarding hourly wages per se but all sorts of benefits). The email or typed letter would always begin with those magic words “For all non-union employees, we are pleased to annouce…” In the case of this corporation, these letters and emails were not actually directed to union employees, but were often available on the internal corporate website so that union employees could clearly see them. As you say, it’s actually a good thing to continually remind them what they are missing out on when choosing to install a union.
Unions are so terrible. While fair cost of living increases are important, this goes above and beyond and crosses into the greedy territory. Shame on this and other unions for shoving their fat hands too far into the cookie jar.
I love me some radical transparency. Down with the oligarchs!
In the past some companies have been fined by the government as these types of letters sent to union employees can also be seen as part of a union busting strategy.
Why does the union need to rise up through the air in order for United to unilaterally increase the pay of flight attendants?
I mean sure it’s a reminder to the flight attendants for what they are missing out on but the current United wage proposal is a one time uplift in wages and then they have not even proposed annual wage increases in the contract and no retroactive pay for the years that they have not amended their contract.
While I don’t believe that proposal will be approved it’s not a great look to anyone to say that corporate employees deserve annual pay increases but operations employees do not deserve their pay to keep up with inflation. If they had this in their proposal then yes this is just a nice reminder that being in a union is slowing down their access to higher wages, but given they don’t even propose it, and for a long time (and only recently rescinded this) proposed flight attendants should work duty days above the FAA’s legally mandated limit, it’s pretty poor form. Not to mention how they recently broke labor law on FMLA and flight attendants had to report them to DoL.
I think Gary and other internet commentators smack the flight attendant unions pretty heavily (and I’m certainly not saying they don’t deserve a smack at all) without giving much respect for the situation these people are in. Flight attendants are hamstrung without the ability to strike like most of labor in the US and then airlines have long abused the fact it’s a very sought-after job, knowing that if employees leave they can easily be replaced. Airlines have abused this work group for decades, degrading the career from what used to be prestigious and liveable to one where most flight attendants are barely scraping by. I think the internet has started to regularly mock flight attendants and their unions. The sad reality is most flight attendants don’t love their union, but it’s really all they have to try and stand up to these companies that really abuse the hell out of them.
For anyone wondering, I’m not a flight attendant, my partner is one who received this email by mistake. It was not a shock to her that corporate employees get annual raises – I work a corporate job so she sees this. Her response was “why does management hate us so much that they want to rub it in my face that they get to keep up with inflation but they aren’t even proposing to do the same for me. They know we are struggling, they just seem to want to be mean to people who are already beaten down”
This is the first year where she is senior enough to not have to work Christmas (4th year working for United) but she has chosen to work it as she said “I can’t afford to have a real Christmas, I need the extra pay to pay rent, and working is a good distraction from knowing everyone else is having a good time”
Also Gary, I’m not saying you’re incorrect at all here so this is not criticism. I just wanted to show that these moments are having real impacts on people who feel pretty powerless.
This is why I always preferred being non-union and able to negotiate my own pay and be rewarded based on my own performance.
The union is the issue for UA flight attendants. They are trying to ask for raises that are not realistic and as you mentioned they are trying to give higher wages to senior people who work less and already get paid much more. I would fire the union and find a new one who is more balanced.
I remember calling my brother about 25 years ago and asking him what HR meant since he worked at Coca Cola headquarters. He said that would be the empoyment office. I don’t understand why everything has to be renamed to sound fancy.
You don’t seem to understand how contracts work for companies, like airlines, covered by the Railway :Labor Act.
Contracts under the RLA don’t have “terms”. They go on in perpetuity. They become “amendable” after a certain amount of time, but unless they are amended, they go on as agreed to forever.
A contract might call for a 3% raise in the first year of the amended contract, a 3% in the second, a 3% in the third, and then nothing.
But if it calls for a 3% “annual” raise, that 3% will go on forever. And because there is no “zero base” in RLA contracts, that is, they don’t start with a clean sheet of paper at the end of a term, provisions of contracts tend to be fixed in stone absent a cataclysm like 9/11 or Chapter 11.
And more importantly, Sara Nelson knows that whatever the most is she can get from one airline will become the baseline for negotiations with all the other airlines the next time.G
Please don’t think dissemination of information was a “leak” or an “accident”. The company knows exactly what it’s doing.
Senior FAs should get lower wages. They should get the same as mid career FAs. Junior FAs should get more. FA performance doesn’t get better ans many times gets worse with lots of seniority.
Medicare acts like thugs because they routinely cut payments. In 2025, they are cutting payments by 3%. Politicians lie because they claim to protect Medicare but then cut it.
The union looks like they made a big error in negotiations.
Non union members CAN get a wage increase as demonstrated by United giving pilots a wage increase before they settled a union contract a few years ago. United just doesn’t value its flight attendants as much.
@Stephanie – not unilaterally, a mid-contract increase generally needs agreement by the union (usually in the form of a side letter)
@Gary: Over at AA, didn’t APFA decline the offer of an interim raise before the contract was settled?
The sad part of the RLA is that once one union is entrenched, it’s really really hard for the membership to hold them accountable or make a change. Especially as each work group is seemingly treated as bargaining chip for the next group’s negotiation.
One of the problems is that the union is not asking for cost of living pay increases or the like. They just want x% more than the other guys got.
People from airline A get 3%.
People from airline B want 3% more than airline A got.
People from airline C want 3% more than airline B got.
When airline A comes around again, now they want 3% more than airline C got.
Yes. The generous kind corporations are just dying to give their employees big raises out of the goodness of their hearts but the mean nasty unions won’t let them. Also, Santa Claus will be coming later this month.
Unions are only beneficial to those in “leadership” positions. The rest are just along for the ride. Once the union extorts the pay increase from the company, they’ll turn around and extort higher dues fees from the membership. Case in point: APFA is trying this exact strategy at AA.
The AFA is a joke they still haven’t secured a tentative agreement for Alaska Airlines flight attendants which they should have done prior to the AS/HA merger gaining approval from the DOJ. Now after more than a year of slow walking negotiation with United Airlines they’ve fired the negotiation committee for doing what Sarah told them to do which was slow walk the negotiations.
The AFA wanted to go last they wanted to secure a huge contract for United not because they value the flight attendants they represent at United. They wanted a huge contract for United because it would almost assure the AFA would then win the vote to unionize Delta Airlines flight attendants which they are from what I’ve heard making outlandish promises to Delta flight attendants if they first sign the card then vote to install a union. Sarah and the AFA have put their priorities of securing Delta ahead of winning a reasonable contract for United flight attendants.
United flight attendants are paying the price for Sarah Nelson’s and the AFA’s greed as Delta most likely will announce pay raises for their flight attendants at some point next year bringing their flight attendants pay up to American’s new pay rates if not higher, all while United FA’s will continue without a contract and pay raises.
Now with Trump taking office and a NMB that will not be as friendly to unions as the current NMB now they want to speed up these negotiations but there is no incentive for United to come to the table right now when Biden is leaving office in a matter of weeks. The tide has shifted in United’s favor and again it’s the flight attendants who caught in the middle. I don’t think this will be solved until the second half of 2025.
If United simply negotiated i good faith, instead of using this to try to bust the union, it could have been settled long ago.
When worked an for an airline I moved from a union to a non union job. The first few years were great in what they were able to offer as far as flexibility and not being bound to a contract. Then when money got tight so did the perks and eventually they just shut down our entire department and laid us all off. Meanwhile all my friends in my previous job got signing bonuses for the new union contract and generous raises. Say what you will, unions are good for the workers.
@Mikey: True, that’s what comes with being non-union/management. But the difference is you can take your salary and use it as starting point to negotiate elsewhere… versus starting over at the bottom of the scale.
Oh boy derek….
Replace ere in your name with ic….and there you are.
Elephant in the room: the days of negotiating for “yourself” and getting rewarded for achievement are no longer. Commenting on union vs non-union labor relations with an early 90s perspective is divisive and exactly the amount of chum these companies thrive in. As posted above, this wasn’t a leak, it was a deliberate play by a player with all the cards.