United Airlines has further stoked the anger of its flight attendants by accidentally sending an email to crew members about wage increases that were meant only for non-union head office employees.
The email faux pas comes at a particularly tricky time for United and its flight attendant workforce, with the two sides locked in protracted contract negotiations that don’t appear to be making any progress.
Hearing UAL HR sent out a corp employee compensation study/raise plan email… to all of the flight attendants (who haven’t seen a raise since their contract became amendable) oopsies
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) 4 December 2024 at 03:25
Flight attendants at the Chicago-based carrier have been in contract talks for nearly three years, and in that whole time, they haven’t had a single wage increase. In fact, until an agreement is reached, wages for United’s crew members will remain stagnant.
To make matters worse, federal mediators who have been overseeing bargaining between the two sides have suspended any further negotiations until early 2025. The bargaining position of the flight attendant union could then be seriously undermined by the incoming Trump administration.
According to aviation insider JonNYC on Blue Sky and X, the memo discussed a compensation study and pay raise plan, which was only meant to be sent to corporate employees who are not represented by a union.
In response to the slow progress being made in negotiations, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) recently sacked its negotiating committee and brought in the union’s head bargaining attorney, Joe Burns
Burns was lent by AFA-CWA to the union that represents American Airlines’ flight attendants, which resulted in the recent ratification of a new contract for crew members at the Fort Worth-based carrier.
United is only willing to match the pay rates that were recently locked in by American’s flight attendants, but the carrier is not willing to copy other benefits like a ratification bonus or retro pay for the three years that flight attendants have been without a raise.
Importantly, United has also refused to entertain a new pay concept demanded by AFA-CWA, which would see flight attendants paid for all the time they spend at work.
Yes, it might sound odd, but flight attendants at United are only paid from the moment that the plane pushes back from the gate to the point that it arrives at its destination.
Other airlines, like American Airlines, have introduced ‘boarding pay’ to cover the time that flight attendants spend on the plane on the ground, but AFA-CWA wants this pay extended to any time that flight attendants are at work – such as walking between planes.
Along with ground pay, the flight attendant union has also demanded an inflation-busting 28% pay raise in the contract’s first year, followed by 4% every year after that as part of an open-ended agreement, as well as a ratification bonus, and retro pay.
