United Airlines flight attendants haven’t had a raise in four years, as contract negotiations drag on. The union says that the airline is making unreasonable demands, like only paying health care benefits for flight attendants who work.
- Flight attendants at United can trip trade, and get their flying hours down to zero, while still keeping their benefits.
- This was a feature of United Airlines before the Continental merger. Continental flight attendants used to have to work a minimum of 40 hours a month for their benefits.
- The company raised eliminating this unique feature of the contract.
There are flight attendants who get their hours down to zero each month, month after month, and United remains on the hook for benefits expense. This also encourages flight attendants to stay on at United rather than retire, since they can keep benefits for free without still working. They have the highest seniority for picking up trips that they aren’t going to fly themselves.
Sometimes flight attendants even ‘sell their seniority’ by selling the trips they’re trying to get rid of to other crewmembers, bidding on the most desirable flight sand then letting junior crew who couldn’t secure those on their own fly them.
A reader asks, though, why does the union fight to keep this?
[T]he concept of flight attendants who trade their hours down to zero for years on end is so foreign to most of us.
…[H]ow is that possible when it isn’t for other groups (barring a month here or there when there is an illness) and two, why is the union fighting for this when the working crew members are likely not wanting to give up salary for these unusual benefits for others? Seems like something junior and senior working crew can agree on.
Senior crew taking the best trips away from senior crew is controversial, and hurts junior crew alike. So shouldn’t the union be willing to cede this? It’s an expense United is incurring that the union contract ultimately funds elsewhere, such as lower wages.
The reason that the union serves this special interest of a small group of flight attendants is actually easy to understand, since it’s the same reason that politics yields pork barrel spending: concentrated benefits and dispersed costs.
- The flight attendants who benefit from this benefit a lot. They have a huge incentive to care. They’ll make noise, they’ll campaign for or against union leaders.
- Flight attendants hurt by this are only harmed slightly. They don’t have nearly the same incentive to exert effort to fight it – or even to pay enough attention to understand the issue and how it comes out of their schedules and pocketbooks.
Special interests lobby Washington for perks and subsidies. Since they capture most of the value themselves, they’re willing to spend a lot of money and put in a lot of effort to advocate for those. And since most of the time the cost is spread out against taxpayers as a whole, each taxpayer pays very little. It wouldn’t even be rational spending time let alone money opposing these costs. You pay the dollar or two, rather than dedicating days and money to lobbying against it.
The same is true for niche union contract provisions. It’s underappreciated how much in these contracts is about one group of flight attendants taking from another, rather than from employees taking from the company. Which crew have to work reserve is one issue like this. Boarding pay is another.
Historically flight attendant unions preferred higher hourly rates for duty hours which excluding boarding time, because that benefited senior crew who worked longer flights and spent less time boarding at the expense of junior crew who work more shorter flights and spend a lot more time boarding. It wasn’t until non-union Delta added boarding pay that unions felt pressure to negotiate for this.
And it’s these redistribution issues between flight attendants that are part of what the union complains is holding back a new contract.
Note to Delta flight attendants: A union will sell you out for a small group of vocal senior employees costing your employer millions.
Divide and conquer! Classic. Welcome bootlickers, scabs, and shills. Blame the young, the poor, immigrants, laptops, emails, whatever you want, and please improve nothing. ‘Hard work’ is thing only thing that frees us, right? Enjoy your gated communities.
Same for vacation accrual?
Flight attendants who drop their trips down to zero STILL have to pay for their monthly insurance premiums. It’s not free, Gary. But you already knew that, didn’t you? It’s not the first time you’ve written a hatchet piece disparaging flight attendants with seniority.
Did you ask United why they’ve done very little to eliminate third party computer bots that enable junior flight attendants to have an unfair advantage trading their trips. Even when those bots create an insecure back door to UA’s computer system? Even when those bots crash the system? Does that fit your agenda, Gary?
I have a friend of mine who has been on the United payroll for years and she never flies.
She attends mandatory trainings and gives away all her flights. We always joke that I fly United more than she does.
@1990 – I do like my luxury neighborhood and we have armed guards (we hire off duty police in uniform and patrol cars as our security) to keep people like you out.
BTW you are wrong. The economy would be better without unions (who have outlived their need) and if business could act in the most effective manner. Employees are simply a cost of doing business and to assign anything else to the decision making process is sub optimal (as a fee 100,000 Fed employees are about to find out once Elon publishes his recommendations)
If I go on leave at my job, my medical benefits don’t just stop.
The important thing though, is that Medicare For All would help fix this since then companies wouldn’t need to worry about providing medical coverage.
@John
Those employees pay a small portion of the monthly health care bill. United pays 90% or more of the bill. Any of us would be happy to get a great health care plan for that price while not working.
@Retired Gambler
Oh baby. The fish are biting today! Keep punching down. No consequences, right? Enjoy your false sense of security. Remember to pay your guards well. After all, you are totally the only type of person that owns weapons. Libcucks are all poor, too. I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Gary is mostly right.
The reason that UA is raising this issue is because it does cost United to keep employees on the payroll that add nothing.
Just for comparison, DL has about 6,000 fewer employees to operate more flights but fewer ASMs. UA’s labor productivity is likely lower than DL’s. And DL’s employee count includes Endeavor which is a wholly owned subsidiary.
American has about 125k employees and has even more employees than UA and operates fewer mainline flights than DL.
Unions simply create inefficiencies and part of the reason why DL can pay its employees more including higher profit sharing is because they work more efficiently.
inefficiency does cost the company and it costs all employees in profit sharing.
and, as noted, DL flight attendants are not about ready to jump for a union after the disaster that union representation has been for US airlines has been post -covid.
Very interesting to read this and in my opinion, unfair all around!
Ironic that the most senior FA’s are actually exploiting the junior and low seniority FA’s more than the company is.
If a senior flight attendant “trades” (or sells) long international trip to a junior flight attendant with a much lower wage scale doesn’t the company save money paying the much lower wages?
Employees that give away (or in the past may have sold) some or all their trips is nothing new. It’s been going on for at least 40 years that I’m familiar with. What is it worth to the company? Evidently not much since they negotiated the contract. Of course, the senior crew members have the unions ear.
So this article was poorly written and you did not do your research. The insurance is not free, the flight attendants are still paying for it. Furthermore, United Airlines offers what is called Special COLA. It’s a company offered leave where you literally fly zero hours but keep your benefits. They literally are OFFERING it to the United Flight attendants month after month. Clearing your line is not much different than this.
Can Delta flight attendant not clear their lines and then pick up more desirable trips? I’m 1,000 percent sure they can.I bet you’ll defend that though since you’re anti union!Heck the Southwest Flight Attendants can literally pay people to get rid of their trips and then fly nothing. Please do proper research and stop writing articles like this it’s simply embarrassing on your behalf.
I’m a retired Delta Flight Attendant, yes u can drop trips its first come first serve, but u need to fly so many hours in a year yo keep ur medical and vacation. And sick leave
Nothing is free, u don’t fly u don’t get paid
I don’t understand how one “trades” trips but doesn’t fly anything – they don’t get a trip in return for the “traded” trip? If they fly zero, what do they get paid?
Wonder why people here bash the flight attendant unions but ignore the various pilot unions (even the Delta pilots union).
Ryan,
Do you lie and mislead all the time or is today a special day?
1. United pays a large fraction of insurance cost.
2. “Literally offered COLA” so now that’s the law….LOL
Well, now they “literally” want to take it away. What’s the problem here?
UAL is on track for making even more record profits than they did for 23. Pilots backed up the Brinks truck & are making record wages, Kirby & his buddies are also laughing all the way to the bank. Leff is just a puppet for mamnagement.
@Flyoften
And your point is? The UA employees are still not getting FREE HEALTHCARE INSURANCE plus they are paying union dues. They also have to take requalification training regardless Reading is what? Fundamental!!!!
United is still planning on offering special COLA’s in the next TA so what you’re saying makes zero sense. Southwest can drop down to zero hours, flight attendants can pay people to take their trips, and they have free health insurance. United brings in more revenue than Southwest and several other airlines allow you to drop down zero and still keep your healthcare. Including many regional airlines! This is not unique to United. Do actual research and speak on what you actually know!
Go find some place else to troll and find actual valid arguments.
It’d be nice, if say, you’re one of those senior persons collecting pension, 401k, and social security (since there are many at the top capable of doing so) that had their job on the line if they didn’t fly X amount of hours or flights in x amount of days/months.
Don’t want to work, but want the job security, insurance, vacation, and flight benefits?
I’d vote for a contract that would cause you to lose your job with so little productivity and so much leeching.
F$#&+¡G RETIRE ALREADY!
“It’s not free” Are you stupid or just trying to spread BS. Yes, the cost of insurance paid for by UA is free to the non-flying FA. Just because they still share (a small, I guess) portion of that doesn’t change things. Go back to the kids table and let the adults talk.
This is akin to sugar import regulations in the US. They cost consumers $2 billion a year (old numbers) and make US sugar producers (not their employees, the owners) $1 billion richer. There’s a great incentive to the scum that makes the money to keep the policies in places. Consumers don’t get riled about the $5 a head theft. Same thing is true for peanuts. Anybody can grow them, but only those holding rights can sell their product for US consumption.
What’s with the union shills trying to argue that because it’s not completely free it’s also not stupid?
Pretty much anyone would like health insurance that is 90 percent subsidized.
And no, senior FAs trading trips to junior FAs doesn’t save the airline money. Not having the senior FAs on payroll at all would save the airline money.
I’ve been on the bottom and top end of seniority in the commercial aviation industry after a long career. In retrospect, now retired, I can say objectively that seniority is exploited, overindulged and creates Prima Donnas. Your example here is just one of many notorious examples from airline FA’s.
WN fA’s can do the same. Lots of FA’s haven’t worked for years and still get all their benefits.
As several other have stated, this also occurs at Southwest.
I am a Southwest flight attendant and I can tell you that we definitely have a number of flight attendants who have not worked in years and still retain all of their benefits and five weeks of paid vacation a year.
In fact, this “no minimums” was one of the things our union fought to keep in our recent contract negotiations.
I’ve actually flown with a woman was working her first trip after taking 18 years off to raise her children. 18 years of full benefits and annual vacations and literally coming to work one day a year for recurrent training.
I am not saying that I am for or against this… I’ll keep my opinion to myself.
My point, though, was that this is not unique to United,
Just ONE example why flight attendants fight for continuing this provision:
Employee gets cancer (high incidences of this due to radiation exposure in aviation), is out 3 to 6 months during radiation treatments, is no longer eligible for health insurance the following year because they didn’t hit the hours required threshold. Talk about kicking someone when they’re down.
@ryan
Employees pay less than 10% of the cost of insurance. Most of us would kill to have that program for not working.
“Just ONE example why flight attendants fight for continuing this provision:
Employee gets cancer (high incidences of this due to radiation exposure in aviation), is out 3 to 6 months during radiation treatments, is no longer eligible for health insurance the following year because they didn’t hit the hours required threshold. Talk about kicking someone when they’re down.”
Red herring, I must say. Are you telling me that UA doesn’t have short and long-term disability programs? I wouldn’t get paid if I didn’t work, but I’d get disability pay while receiving treatment for an illness that prevents me from working. UA doesn’t have such a thing for FAs? I doubt it.
This article is in bad taste. You realize United flight attendants are pretty much one of the lowest paid right now and you’re attacking them for something many airlines already have right before Christmas??? Does it make you feel like a big man to act like an as s?
Dave W says:
“Red herring, I must say. Are you telling me that UA doesn’t have short and long-term disability programs? I wouldn’t get paid if I didn’t work, but I’d get disability pay while receiving treatment for an illness that prevents me from working. UA doesn’t have such a thing for FAs? I doubt it.”
Yes Dave, you are correct. Flight Attendants DO have short-term / Long-term disability pay. That has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what’s being discussed here. While out on disability, you are not working. Not working = no credited work hours. This article is discussing United Airlines wanting to take away medical, dental, vision benefits for the following year, if you don’t work 40 hours per month, every month, this year. If you’re out (NOT WORKING) 4 or 5 months this year, you aren’t accruing WORK HOURS. Understand???
,@Fl-eye-er maybe read the post I quoted and my reply. Someone argued the zero-hour workers might need to do so if they got cancer. I, apparently correctly, thought UA would have disability coverage, thus make their argument moot. You smack the ball in the net and crow about your shot.
I am considered a senior f/a and I do bid for special colas and I do get my hours down to zero or maybe do a trip here and there. I pay what your paying each month for insurance which takes nothing away from junior f/a’s.
I still pay for my insurance each and every month just like you do. I don’t accumulate vacation days and if im not working I don’t take away from PTO days of any sort from you. The fact is I open them up for you by not using them.
I always took volunteer furloughs so that somebody else could work who needed to work to support their families. Never did I hear a thank you from junior flight attendants on the cusp of being laid off but I still helped someone from being furloughed for a month, 6 months or a even a year.
Your welcome.
I’ll retire when I feel ready to retire not because of nastiness being said here. I put my time in over the past 34 years and when life offered me an opportunity to work less I took it. Being married and commuting my entire career and double commuting to boot to have a marriage and family also takes a toll. I believe those who are trying to push us out because you consider us dinosaurs or lazy for not flying a full schedule need to rethink and take a pause.
See how you feel after 34 yrs or longer if we came from another carrier (plus not bringing those 11 yrs with us). If your truly honest with yourself, you would like to be us at some point down the road. We earned the right to fly or not to fly. Maybe some f/a’s need to keep the job because their futures aren’t stable enough to quit, a spouse gets ill and they may need to resume flying to pay the bills.
Stop judging us seniors and instead thank us for taking leaves so you can fly another month or a year and have a job rather than having to choose a new career.
I heard some f/a’s talking about staying to see what the next contract brings. We fought to have what we had until United began throwing out the contract and work rules and its the mess it is now.
Why would a senior f/a want to suffer through all that month after month when we, who can afford not to put ourselves through all that makes you unhappy to come to work.
I’m not leaving until I feel ready.
“I pay what your paying each month for insurance which takes nothing away from junior f/a’s.” But, your employer pays, what, maybe 9 times that. So, yes, you are stealing from them, you entitled …….
OK, SFO/Dave that’s like the 5th time you’ve claimed that United pays 90%+ of the health care premiums of employees. Any proof of that?
I would be shocked, because the average across all companies is 80% individual and 73% of family plans. I know when I was CFO for a start-up, I split it 80-20%. Maybe because of seniority, long labor negotiations, United pays more. But they also went through bankruptcy, allowing them to reset to market norms- I don’t think they pay 90%+
As a United FA of over 20 years, I can confirm that this is a problem, and I hate it. I fly 100+ hour per month, and receive the same health insurance benefits as some of my colleagues who haven’t flown a trip since before the pandemic. BRING BACK THE CONTINENTAL 4O HOUR MINIMUM. If you want benefit, you need to be at work. The money that is spent to keep these people on the payroll should be better invested into the contract for the FAs who actually fly!
@Debbie you should have saved for retirement. No other industry allows workers who don’t work to keep their benefits. You don’t have to fly a full schedule, but you should have to fly 40 hours per month to keep benefits. It’s just a no brainer, and it’s unfair to your coworkers like me who have to receive a lower wage that we would have otherwise to keep you employed when you hardly contribute to the company.
As a current flight attendant for United, this angers me so much. It’s basically senior vs. junior exploitation, and why United allows people to keep benefits when they don’t work, or hardly work, is beyond me. I miss the work rules at CO, they were more fair.
Ryan— You’re talking about COLAS, but that’s not the issue here. The issue is when a flight attendant holds a line of flying, and either gives away all their trips or advertises them, and then they drop down to zero for the month and yet still retain benefits. The COLAs are fine, but it’s not fine when you occupy a line of flying, and then don’t work even a single trip, and still get benefits.
Yes, I know that you still need to pay the monthly fee for the benefits, but United subsidized a GREAT deal of the price… And that is where the inefficiency and loss of money come from. Flight attendants usually pay about $200 a month for insurance, but United pays a substantial amount to bring the price down to just $200 for us.
This practice shouldn’t be allowed. There needs to be a monthly minimum, or else you need to use disability insurance or COBRA.
@Ryan – this article isn’t about a COLA (company offered leave). It’s about when a flight attendant drops or gives away their trips after getting a line of flying, and proceeds not to work at all that month. There’s a difference. A COLA is a way for the company to reduce staffing overages when possible, and also allow flexibility for FAs. But when an FA drops to zero when they don’t take a COLA, they are costing the company more money to keep on the payroll than the employee’s output. It’s circumventing the system, and t’s a net loss for the company. (The company has to pay substantial portions of the insurance rates offered to each FA, so the company comes out behind when an employee produces zero work).
I am all for a min. hour requirement. What’s fair is fair!
@George. I screwed up and used a percentage I saw previously without confirming. So, please all, consider my post should say 90% (or whatever it is).” The thrust of my comment holds whether it’s 75%, 50%, or whatever. The fact that none of those supporting the zero-work-hours ploy jumped in to suggest a lower number makes me suspect it is at least 90%.
Oh, and BTW, I’m not condemning those who use it; I’m just suggesting it should be eliminated for fairness sake. They’re going to get a pie of whatever size. I think it’s silly to cut off a small piece for this feature.
@Fl-eye-er, cancer is what your short and long term disability insurance are for. Getting cancer shouldn’t give you an excuse to occupy a line of flying and drop trips to zero. United has both short and long term disability insurance for you to participate in for that kind of thing.
It’s fairly unremarkable to see this kind of anti union propaganda from a C suite elite who wouldn’t know hard work if it slapped him in the face.
@Sarah P
Please STFU
They aren’t circumventing anything it’s literally contractual. Some of the stuff y’all say in here is so hilarious and clearly you’re trolling. I literally cleared my line at regional and kept my full benefits. Many airlines have this feature because it’s contractual. A COLA and dropping down to zero are both contractual. You really need to stop trolling lol