Flight Attendants Want More from Airlines and Are Willing to Strike

14.12.2023 - 15:59 / skift.com / Spirit Airlines / Delta Air Lines / United Airlines / Edward Russell / Southwest Airlines / United S.Airlines / Sara Nelson / Airlines

Flight attendants at Southwest Airlines overwhelmingly rejected a new contract over the weekend. The move is the latest in the mounting tensions between cabin crew and U.S. airline management that could result in the industry’s first labor action in more than a decade.

The agreement that Southwest’s nearly 19,000 flight attendants rejected included pay increases of 36% over five years and other quality of life improvements. The offer clearly was not enough: 64% of those who voted rejected the agreement.

“The flight attendants of Southwest Airlines have made it clear that this proposed contract is not going to heal the hurt,” said Lyn Montgomery, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 556 that represents the crew members. “We will go back to the table to achieve the collective bargaining agreement that meets the needs of the hardest-working flight attendants in the industry.”

The union declined to comment further.

One area of disagreement concerns boarding pay. Almost all U.S. flight attendants are paid only when an aircraft door is closed, rather than during the boarding and deplaning process. Delta Air Lines is the sole U.S. carrier that pays cabin crew for boarding, a policy it added last year amid a drive to unionize (the airline’s cabin crew is currently not unionized).

Cabin crew unions at Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and United Airlines are all in active contract negotiations. American flight attendants have gone as far as to authorize a potential strike.

Labor is having a moment in the U.S. Strikes have been successful in a number of high profile industries from the big auto manufacturers to actors and screenwriters in Hollywood. And the threat of strikes helped freight railroad employees reach long-sought deals. Organizing campaigns have succeeded at historically non-union companies like Starbucks.

“People, they’re furious,” said Sara Nelson, president of the largest flight attendants union, the Association of Flight Attendants. “They’re furious that they haven’t been recognized, and their demands are very high.”

Flight attendants were on the frontlines of the pandemic. That included dealing with a surge in unruly fliers and having to enforce controversial rules like the mask mandate.

In addition to the ground pay issue, another issue concerns the work rules that govern when flights are delayed and canceled, said Embry-Riddle Professor Blaise Waguespack. This was top of mind for many Southwest crews following the airline’s meltdown last December when it “lost” many of its pilots and flight attendants.

Some airline executives have received big pay increases as their carriers have returned to profitability post-Covid. And pilots across the industry — even among