Contract talks between United Airlines and its flight attendant union appear to be nearing an end after four years.
“We are just starting to see United get serious at the table,” Ken Diaz, president of the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants, said Wednesday. “This management team has delayed, delayed, delayed. They are starting to take some of their concessions off the table.”
On Wednesday, United flight attendants demonstrated at 19 airports around the world, from Guam to London. Diaz, who was in Chicago, said the two sides could reach a tentative contract agreement for United’s 28,000 flight attendants within months.
“We’re getting to the final parts of negotiations,” he said. “We are now negotiating scheduling. We feel we can make progress in concluding that in weeks, which will bring us to the economic part.” Economic issues typically represent the final step in labor talks. All AFA/United talks are taking place in Chicago, with sessions scheduled for the weeks of April 7 and April 21 as well as three weeks in May.
A United spokeswoman said Wednesday, “We’re having productive negotiations with the AFA, including last week, and we continue to find common ground. We’re eager to reach the industry-leading contract our flight attendants deserve.”
Pay rates in the current contract were negotiated in 2016. The contract became amendable in August 2021. American and Alaska, as well as Delta – where flight attendants do not have union representation – all have post-pandemic contract deals.
“We’re over 20% less in pay than American is right now,” Diaz said. “Right now United is second in profits, but fifth in how they pay flight attendants.” He expects the pay discrepancy to be addressed in the talks “United knows what the wage scale out there is,” he said, and United CEO Scott Kirby “has promised to be the best.” The extent of retroactive pay has yet to be negotiated.
Among other outstanding issues, United still puts flight attendants on reserve for 24 hours, while other airlines’ reserve period is 12 to 14 hours.
Regarding boarding pay, which represents pay for aircraft time before departure, United management “has just come to the table with that,” Diaz said. “How that would work still has to be negotiated.”
Initially, Diaz said, United sought to eliminate the most popular health care plan, but “they have backed down from that. The plan most flight attendants are enrolled in, a traditional PPO plan, is now back on the table.”
Flight attendants approved a strike authorization with a 99% vote in August. “We don’t want to strike: we want an agreement,” Diaz said. “Some positive signs are that we’ve asked to meet more often and they’ve agreed to that.”
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