A large number of United’s cabin crew seem to be very unhappy with the contract their union negotiated. To me, the biggest issues are that after five years without a raise, the contract doesn’t really appear to produce economic terms that are better than competitors even though other flight attendants got raises first, and it makes concessions like allowing the airline to put crew up in hotels that are merely ‘tenantable’ while they’re on the road.
- The union has gone through backflips to argue that this deal is better than other deals, for instance arguing that ‘if another airline had United’s schedule their crew would be paid less’ but that’s little comfort.
- I suspect that the union just overpromised for so long – that crew would be paid so much more than anyone else, including all ‘ground time’ and not just copying non-union Delta’s boarding pay.
- But the ground shifted underneath the union with Trump’s victory – the President both has influence over the National Mediation Board (which authorizes a strike) and can delay any strike. Even Biden did not allow airline strikes. So the union’s strategy to delay talks and let others go first backfired giving up leverage.
- This may be the best they can do! And what some crew don’t like will be tradeoffs the union pursued privileging one group of flight attendants over another, rather than simply just not bargaining hard enough with the company.
Now there’s a flight attendant change.org petition seeking not just to vote down the contract but to change unions. Here are their gripes:
- Leadership failed to secure a new contract for nearly five years yet still deducts dues—and even granted itself a 37 % pay raise while rank-and-file wages stagnate.
- Chronic payroll errors and “wage-theft” claims have cost flight attendants thousands of dollars; AFA-CWA has allegedly done nothing to recover the money.
- The reserve (on-call) system is described as financially unsustainable, pushing new hires to quit because schedules are unstable and income unpredictable.
- When United offered to reinstate employee pensions, the union’s MEC voted it down, leaving many attendants without restored retirement benefits.
- During COVID-19, AFA-CWA signed a confidential side-letter on the vaccine mandate—forcing compliance or unpaid leave—without membership consultation.
- Union leaders are accused of silence on executive bonuses and stock buybacks, signalling alignment with management rather than members.
- Despite a 99.9 % strike-authorization vote in 2024, the union declined to act, choosing delays and “empty promises.”
- Petitioners say AFA-CWA abandoned the most junior 5,500 attendants by creating a “no-activity line” during the pandemic that protected senior staff but left juniors without pay or benefits.
AFA-CWA reported that 91% of their members were unhappy at work. That’s after the union had been representing them! That doesn’t speak well of the union. And now United appears to be threatening flight attendants with dismissal if they take FMLA leave. It’s similar to moves the carrier has taken in the past, but the union hasn’t managed to stop it.
So it may feel like AFA-CWA is doing it a poor job. It often seems like the union’s national head Sara Nelson is far more interested in her own public profile and lobbying for national wins that advance her own position within the AFL-CIO – and accolades on TV – than helping rank-and-file flight attendants.
The truth is though that (1) unions are as much about redistributing income from junior employees to senior ones, so junior employees will often be unhappy, (2) there’s a certain amount they’re going to extract in bargaining and they have to decide what to prioritize, while (3) frequently overpromising rather than being honest with their members. Similar economic terms as competitors is simply what they were always going to wind up with, and getting that requires tradeoffs as they face declining leverage. It’s unlikely another union would have done better, though another union might have prioritized differently.
A change.org petition isn’t how you change unions, though. United’s 28,000 flight attendants would need to collect authorization cards from at least 50% plus one of all members of their work group stating that the signer wants a specific new union (or “no representation”). These cards are good for one year.
Then the employee committee or prospective union submits Form RA-4 with the signed cards. Any other union can “intervene,” but it too must file cards from more than 50% of the same group. National Mediation Board investigators confidentially verify the cards and issue an eligibility list. And cnce the list is final, the Board schedules an election four to six weeks in the future.
A simple majority of votes cast wins. If no selection (AFA-CWA, alternate union, no representation) gets more than 50% of the vote there’s a runoff ballot. After any certification or decertification election, no new election petition can be filed for two years.
United flight attendants who want to oust AFA-CWA must first organize a majority card drive. That’s a huge barrier. It is very unlikely to happen – and certainly won’t be successful without the institutional support of a rival union.
Sara “Selfie” Nelson, in my opinion, has long been more concerned about getting delta flight attendants’s dues added to her union’s balance sheet than actually working to ensure her current members have industry leading compensation packages and bringing a collaborate culture to make work as enjoyable as it can be. AFA needs to go!
The union is taking management’s side? That sounds exactly the way the NYC UFT took the city’s side when it comes to the way they treat the teacher retirees.
Unions are useless. The only people that benefit are the leaders.
Sara Nelson is a tool. She was way more interested in her own profile being on TV and hobnobbing with Hollywood stars than doing her job. This is an example of voting. Voters get what they voted for GOOD AND HARD. Elect Sara Nelson and get it good and hard.
When union members become senior staff they no longer care about the little people below them. They become selfish and greedy, only looking out for themselves.
So it’s no longer the union against management. There are three levels.
Union workers. Union management, and Company management.
Guess who gets the cash and who gets bashed?
The AFA has guaranteed that DL FAs will never unionize. DL mgmt will use this stuff as examples for decades.
and the employee-friendly culture that Oscar built at UA Is gone. and this is just the FIRST of SIX union agreements that UA has to settle.
UA’s customer service will deteriorate because mgmt knows they cannot afford industry-comparable pay and also be in the same profit league as DL – so UA is choosing to underpay its employees and invite employee dissatisfaction.
Sara Nelson missed her window post-COVID and through 2024 to leverage her high profile into ascendant Democratic politics. She could, and should, have jumped ship into elected office, or at least found some role in the swamp. Meanwhile, the union she presided over is in shambles and starting to eat itself.
United’s FAs deserve better representation.
I’ve said before, unions are like herpes, the gift that keeps on taking…forever. If the majority of the flight attendants are not happy, they should launch a campaign to de-certify the union. Since United’s management has dug in with a crappy deal to begin with, that leaves the flight attendant’s “ship without a rudder”. The tricky part is for United to realize that in order to de-certify the union, they would have to propose a better deal without being accused of union busting. If United’s management was smart (which is debatable), they would come up with a way to propose a better “life without a union” and not get in trouble with the National Railroad Act and/or the NLRB.
Unions are generally invaluable to help offset corporate greed. Without unions around, airlines would treat flight attendants even worse. That said, the AFA has done a pretty lousy job of helping their members. At an absolute minimum they need to install a completely new management group.
The best they can do? I hope you never negotiate for me. Lol if it’s a trash offer or a trash car you don’t take the first offer. You reject it and get something else. That’s common sense.
No one cares about Trump anymore and it’s the mediators job to mediate. They should fire the negotiators they have now because clearly they are sleeping with the company. They pay the most union dues out of any U.S. carrier so if they are unhappy they should demand better
If it’s what the members want, then they can vote accordingly; organizing is inherently democratic in that folks pick their representatives, and can hold them accountable, too. I just want what’s best for these workers, because when they’re happy, well-paid, well-supported, then often we, the passengers, are treated better, too. Instead of attacking the idea/existence of unions, as some of you usually do, let’s appreciate the many improvements that labor has accomplished not only for members but for the society at-large. Oh, too idealistic for you? Then, get to work! Gotta start somewhere.
Unions are without question flawed. I say that as a person who grew up in a union household and who still believes in the necessity and importance of unions…in some circumstances.
While people like Ms. Nelson appear to be self-serving, without unions there would be a lot of people lacking some of the basic protections and benefits they have today. We know why unions were created and we know that with the modern-day robber barons unions are as essential as ever. While unions have their issues I can only imagine how some industries would treat their employees if the unions didn’t exist.
That doesn’t mean union leadership can act with impunity. The leadership exists as the leisure of the members. If the members are unhappy they should vote them out.
AFA has failed its unions and Kirby’s anti-union bent makes it easy to play the AFA.
Ideally, the AFA would follow DL’s FAs in being non-union and use the threat of unionization as a means to get more.
FA unions add nothing compared to non-union DL and SkyWest FAs esp. when you factor in the cost of union membership and the delays that the Railway Labor Act allows companies to engage in.
If a Flight Attendant is not happy with their contract, they are free to find employment at another airline. I think the FAs will quickly find the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere.
except it is greener, M Cross and it is the job of a union at an airline that touts how well it is doing to secure that success for its employees.
and I am sure that a number of senior UA FAs will retire if the contract is passed which includes healthy retro pay – even if it isn’t everything it should be.
If alot of those senior FAs are forced to stay longer to wait out more retro because the junior FAs are’nt going to be sold downriver, then UA FAs could quickly become a pretty unhappy bunch pretty quickly – with a guaranteed negative impact on customer service
Look for…. the Union Label…. LMAO