Flight attendants at Frontier Airlines have just overwhelmingly voted in favor of taking strike action over the Denver-based carrier’s decision to transition to a ‘turn only’ business model in which crew members end their working day at their primary airport base.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) claims crew member wages have plummeted by more than 20% after the ultra-low-cost carrier switched to the so-called ‘turn-only’ business model.
Within the aviation industry, a ‘turn’ is used to describe flights in which crew members end up where they started their working day because they fly to their destination and then turn straight back.
Chief executive Barry Biffle introduced the turn-only model earlier this year in an attempt to dramatically slash costs by saving money on pilots and flight attendants staying in hotels in destinations across the airline’s network.
Frontier also says the turn-only model will help the airline better react to irregular operations, such as bad weather, which caused chaos for Southwest Airlines in December 2022.
The flight attendant union filed for federal mediation in May in an attempt to force Frontier to renegotiate the flight attendant contract because crew members are losing out on pay from not staying downroute in different destinations during their working week.
On Wednesday, the union announced that 99.6% of flight attendants had voted to authorize a strike, with a turnout of 92.7% eligible crew members.
“Frontier management is putting their ‘cost savings’ plan on Flight Attendants’ backs,” slammed Sara Nelson, AFA International President, after the ballot results were announced.
“It’s a gross example of corporate greed that devalues the contributions of these Flight Attendants to the airline and creates incredible instability for the people who make Frontier fly,” Nelson added.
Sometimes described as the most powerful flight attendant in the world because AFA-CWA represents so many crew members at different carriers, Nelson once again demanded Frontier management renegotiate the flight attendant contract to compensate for a loss of earnings.
Although the current flight attendant contract isn’t within the normal timeframe for renegotiating, the union claims the new business model constitutes a dispute under the Railway Labor Act, which should allow them to call for early bargaining.
A spokesperson for Frontier Airlines accused Nelson of ‘fueling fear’ at the expense of the flying public as the National Mediation Board (NMB), which regulates labor relations in the aviation industry, hasn’t even agreed to AFA’s demands to start federal mediation.
“Frontier Airlines is fully committed to maintaining a positive and collaborative relationship with our flight attendants and to negotiating a fair contract,” the airline told us in an emailed statement.
“However, negotiations are nowhere near a point where a strike can legally occur. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) knows this but is resorting to tactics designed to generate publicity and fuel fear at the expense of the flying public.”
The statement added: “Frontier and the AFA are not currently in supervised mediation and, consequently, a strike vote cannot even be considered by the National Mediation Board (NMB).”
A spokesperson said that the two sides have been meeting regularly since December in an attempt to achieve a ‘good faith’ agreement and that the possibility of a strike is a long way off.
The strike vote came just a day after flight attendants at regional carrier PSA Airlines, which operates American Eagle-branded flights, also voted overwhelmingly in favor of strike action as AFA-CWA attempts to negotiate double-digit pay rises for more than 1,300 flight attendants.
The wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines operates more than 500 daily regional flights on behalf of the Fort Worth-based carrier but AFA-CWA claims the airline of marganalising its crew members with an “insulting” pay offer.
Flight attendants at regional airlines have traditionally earned a lot less than their peers at mainline carriers, although Nelson says this is something that has to change.
Last month, flight attendants at United Airlines (are also represented by AFA-CWA) also voted to authorize a strike unless the Chicago-based carrier comes back to the bargaining table with the offer of a big pay rise.
The union has long threatened airlines with its trademarked strike method called CHAOS – which stands for ‘create havoc around our system.’ First used at Alaska Airlines, CHAOS doesn’t involve calling out all flight attendants on strike simultaneously but pulling crew members from random flights at the last minute.
The CHAOS approach is designed to stop ‘backfilling’ flight attendants with specially trained office workers. The strike method was challenged by Alaska Airlines but AFA-CWA won in court in a legal battle that ruled the union was entitled to target individual flights at short notice.
Like F9 flight attendants can afford to strike. Cute.
Would anyone notice anyway?