99.99% Of United Flight Attendants Are Down To Strike
And you thought you were annoyed by airlines.
In a near unanimous vote this week, United Airlines flight attendants authorized a strike — to take place a month from now if the airline does not get its act together and compensate them fairly.
Ninety percent of the flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), participated in the vote, and 99.99 percent of them voted in favor of going on strike for the first time since 2005, which suggests that no one is exactly thrilled with the way things are going over there. Some even picketed after the vote to show the airline how serious they are and to get the word out about the strike vote.
“We deserve an industry-leading contract. Our strike vote shows we’re ready to do whatever it takes to reach the contract we deserve,” said Ken Diaz, president of the United chapter of AFA. “We are the face of United Airlines and planes don’t take off without us. As Labor Day travel begins, United management is reminded what’s at stake if we don’t get this done.”
He’s not overstating anything here. Planes with more than 19 passengers legally cannot take off without at least one flight attendant, and those with more than 51 passengers require two. They’re not just there to bring you your ginger ale and Biscoff cookies — they’re also there in case something goes wrong and there’s an emergency.
According to a press release issued by the AFA, they are “demanding significant double-digit base pay increase, pay for time at work on the ground, retroactive pay to the amendable date, schedule flexibility and work rule improvements, job security, retirement and more.”
With the vote in favor of a strike, the AFA can request a release from the National Mediation Board (NMB) which will give them a 30-day cooling off period, during which the NMB will attempt to manage a resolution between workers and management that satisfies both parties. If one or both are unable to come to the table, the strike can start after that.
And it’s not going to be just a regular old strike. No, it’s going to be one that will screw with United even more than all of the flight attendants simply refusing to work.
The AFA has actually gone and trademarked its strike strategy, called CHAOS™ or Create Havoc Around Our System™ — which is, apparently, a thing you can do. Rather than everyone going on strike at once, intermittent strikes will strike at random, using the element of surprise as leverage. United will never know if everyone is striking that day or if just one flight or one hub is striking, which will make it very difficult for them to hire scabs to replace workers.
The airline has 30 days to either come to the table or risk some very unhappy customers — so it’s not surprising that threats of this kind of strike have led to better contracts for workers at American, Alaska, Southwest airlines and more.
Good luck, flight attendants!
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!:
I heard an NPR report that mentioned flight attendants don’t get paid until the plane is moving. They have to be on the plane, helping passengers on or off, but their hourly pay rate doesn’t start until the plane moves. That’s some real corporate bullshit.
THIS is how it's done.
But it should NOT have to be this damned difficult.