United flight attendants threaten strike
United Airlines flight attendants are threatening a strike and staging a series of demonstrations at airports across the United States, including Tampa International Airport.
TAMPA, Florida. – United Airlines flight attendants are planning a series of demonstrations today outside 20 major U.S. airports, including TPA, to mark the announcement of the results of a recent vote authorizing a strike.
Regardless of the outcome of the vote, flight operations will not be suspended in the near future. The move comes after continued frustrations in United flight attendants’ ongoing negotiations with the airline.
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This month, United’s 28,000 flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), voted to authorize a strike. It is the first time the major airline’s flight attendants have voted to authorize a strike since bankruptcy negotiations in 2005.
“We all know the cost of living in this country is insanely high right now. I’ve been flying for 30 years and I haven’t had a raise in five years,” said Beth Fortner-Rodgers, vice president of United AFA Council 42.
United flight attendants are demanding a double-digit pay raise as well as back pay for the years they worked without a pay change.
“Our contract was amendable in 2021, so there has been no contract, no raise, no lifestyle changes since then,” said United flight attendant Erin Dougherty during a demonstration outside Houston International Airport earlier this summer. “The cost of living right now, as everyone knows, has gone up. The price of food, the price of gas, the price of everything. Since we haven’t gotten a raise since 2021, we’re in a struggle.”
Although they are considered essential workers and are not allowed to strike without federal approval, flight attendants often struggle to make ends meet on their meager salaries.
According to the AFA, United’s starting salary for flight attendants is just under $26,000 per year. The AFA believes the airline can afford to pay its flight attendants more, citing the double-digit raises United recently gave its top executives.
In 2023, United CEO Scott Kirby earned $18.6 million, a 90 percent increase over the previous year, according to United’s annual proxy statement.
An average United flight attendant would have to work 274 years to reach the annual salary of his company’s CEO – a disparity that has not gone unnoticed by disgruntled United Airlines employees.
In addition to pay increases, United flight attendants are also demanding more schedule flexibility, job security, pensions and ground allowances – a sticking point that airlines have been fighting for decades.
“I don’t think the public knows that we don’t get paid until the main cabin door is closed, the brakes are released and we’re pushed back from the gates,” Fortner-Rodgers said.
With the exception of Delta, which pays its flight attendants half their hourly wage for boarding, major U.S. airlines do not compensate their flight attendants for many of the hours they routinely spend on the ground in airports or on tarmacs.
“When these crazy storms come, we get more frustrated than our passengers. Our goal is to get our passengers to their destination as quickly and safely as possible. But we don’t get airfare,” said Fortner-Rodgers. “We only get a daily allowance, which is a dollar and a little change.”
United flight attendants plan to announce the outcome of their vote to authorize the strike at their picket lines at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
However, workers may only stop work if the National Conciliation Board authorises them to do so.
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The board would have to conclude that United’s flight crew and the airline are at an impasse and that further negotiations would be futile.
It is rare for the NMB to side with airline unions when they threaten a work stoppage, but if it does happen, it would trigger a 30-day “cooling off period” leading to a strike deadline.
Recent strike authorization votes have helped advance negotiations at Alaska, American and Southwest Airlines, and United flight attendants hope the same will happen for them.
