Consider these union news items as you make travel plans

The following comes from the Association of Flights Attendants-CWA. Please check in with the union's latest news as you are making travel plans. Many of the airlines are not treating workers with respect or doing enough to ensure their safety. With all of that in mind, it's helpful for us to recall the lives of thoose who were killed on 9/11 and reflect on their lives and their sacrifices as workers and as union members (see below).

Unleashing Our Power: United AFA Day of Action

August 20, 2024 - In two weeks, United AFA will hit the picket line for a system-wide Day of Action on August 28 to announce the results of their strike vote live. Already 72% of eligible Flight Attendants have cast their ballot. These powerful pickets will show United management and the flying public that United Flight Attendants are ready to do whatever it takes to get an industry-leading contract.

We raise the standards of our careers with our Solidarity. There are events at more than 14 airports across the globe — find one near you and join our United siblings in Unleashing Our Power!

2024 AFA September 11 Honor Guard

August 20, 2024 - Twenty-three years ago, we made a promise to Never Forget the events of September 11, 2001 and never allow them to be repeated. No matter the uniform we wear, the routes we fly, or the years we have worn our wings we will always remember the events of September 11th and lift up our heroes.

2024 AFA September 11 Honor GuardOur ninth annual AFA Honor Guard will attend services at our nation’s three national memorials to ensure the public remembers the sacrifice of Flight Attendants. This Honor Guard is comprised of Flight Attendants who have done work to advance our Never Forget priorities:

2024 AFA Honor Guard

September 11th Memorial New York

Kimberly Fritsch, United
Maria Alpogianis, United

National Flight 93 Memorial Shanksville

Jackelyne Cuin, Piedmont
Samantha Wolff, Alaska

National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

Kaela Berg, Endeavor
Edgardo Mangual, United

Frontier Airlines Flight Attendants to Vote on Strike Authorization as Management Refuses to Bargain on Business Model Change

DENVER (July 30, 2024) – Flight Attendants at Frontier Airlines, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), will take a strike authorization vote as management refuses to negotiate over the impact of the carrier’s business model change. Frontier management has a legal obligation to bargain over that impact, separate and distinct from their obligation to engage in regular contract negotiations, yet it refuses to do so or to even engage in mediation through the National Mediation Board.

“Frontier management’s “out and back” business model has resulted in a massive hit to our compensation and time away from our homes,” said Jennifer Sala, AFA Frontier President. “Frontier Flight Attendants are experiencing harm right now. There’s no time to wait to address the impact of management’s decisions on our lives.”

Strike vote ballots will be sent to the 4,000 Flight Attendants, with the vote opening on August 20, 2024 and closing on September 18, 2024.

One common example illustrates how quickly and significantly Flight Attendant pay and work life have been affected. When comparing the same number of days at work in February with March, a Flight Attendant experienced 11% fewer paid flight hours, coupled with a requirement of 5 more trips to the airport. In April that became a 17% reduction in flight hours paid (base compensation) and 8 more trips to the airport. This example means over the course of two months, Flight Attendants lost nearly 20% in pay for the same number of days worked, while also being required to report to work 40% more.

“This strike vote will show just how serious this issue is and the action Flight Attendants are willing to take to get it fixed,” said Sara Nelson, AFA International President. “The change in time on the job and compensation is staggering. We will not pay for this business model change. The longer this goes on, the more Frontier will have to pay to make it right.”

AFA has a trademarked strike strategy known as CHAOS™ or Create Havoc Around Our System™. With CHAOS, a strike could affect the entire system or a single flight. The union decides when, where and how to strike without notice to management or passengers. There is no strike date set at this time. The first step is authorization by the members to empower the union to set a strike deadline, if necessary.

The Flight Attendant Union filed for federal mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB) in May after issuing a formal notice to management on April 3, 2024, that its “turn” plan constitutes a dispute under the Railway Labor Act, separate from regular contract negotiations. This impact of the new business model has a significant negative effect on the working lives of the over 4,000 Flight Attendants in a way not contemplated under the negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

Flights Attendants to kick off Solidarity Summer with picketlines on June 13

On June 13, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) Flight Attendants will kick off “Solidarity Summer” with a Worldwide Day of Action, and you can join your CWA siblings as they make their voices heard. A recent survey of Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants found that nearly 10 percent of those who responded live with family or friends because they cannot afford rent in the city to which they’ve been assigned.

Click this link to take part in a global action!

As the summer travel season begins, Flight Attendants are demanding fair contracts, respect, and livable wages. Join them at any of over 30 airports on June 13. Flight Attendants are putting corporate executives on notice: corporate greed won’t fly!

Click here to find a local picket.

CODE RED: Summer travel is coming and corporate greed is in full swing.

We’re kicking off this red hot Solidarity Summer with a Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action to demand our contracts. Airline executives have had no problem dolling out massive raises for themselves. We’re coming for our share of the profits we create.

Our solidarity transcends airlines. Together, in the height of summer travel season, we’ll show management and the flying public that we’re united in the fight to raise the standards for our careers. No matter what uniform we wear, we’ve earned the long-term security, benefits, flexibility, dignity, and respect that comes with a strong contract. It’s time for airline management to pay up and get this done.

Join us on Thursday, June 13, at more than 30 airports for a Worldwide Day of Action. It's our turn.

Glamour, Travel, Sexism: When Flight Attendants Fought Back

I believe that this story ran in The New York Times under date of February 19, 2024 with the photograph that I added from the Association of Flight Attendants--CWA. It is certainly an inspiring story.

Decades ago, “stewardesses” earned less than men, couldn’t get married or gain weight, and had to retire at 32. A key figure in a landmark lawsuit looks back at a not-so-golden era.

In 1958, when Mary Pat Laffey Inman became a stewardess — as they were then called — for Northwest Airlines, she was 20 years old and the clock was already ticking. At 32, she would be forced to retire. That is, if she didn’t marry, get pregnant or even gain too much weight before that: All were grounds for termination. It was the golden age of aviation for everyone except, perhaps, the women serving in-flight meals to the nattily dressed passengers.

Six years later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and female flight attendants began to join forces against sexism.

In 1970, Ms. Laffey Inman, a union leader and Northwest’s first female purser — the lead attendant on a flight — spearheaded a class-action suit, Laffey v. Northwest Airlines Inc., that resulted in the airline paying more than $30 million in damages and back wages in 1985. It also set the precedent for nondiscriminatory hiring of flight attendants across the industry. But even then, not everything changed: Flight attendants on some airlines were still subjected to “weigh-ins” into the 1990s. (Northwest merged with Delta Air Lines in 2008.)

Now, decades after the landmark decision, Ms. Laffey Inman, 86, is one of several former flight attendants featured in “Fly With Me,” an “American Experience” documentary that chronicles how women fought to overcome discrimination in the airline industry. It premieres on PBS on Feb. 20. The New York Times spoke to Ms. Laffey Inman about how she made history. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What inspired your career in the airline industry?

I was working at Montefiore Hospital, in Pittsburgh. I always wanted to travel, ever since I was a kid. As a flight attendant, I could travel — all expenses paid. I thought it was wonderful. Other stewardesses and I laugh about how lucky we were to be in the industry at that time. We would bid for three-day layovers in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo. A limo would be there to pick you up and take you to the hotel.

What was involved in training at the time?

Flight attendants had a six-week session where we learned about the airline and had emergency and safety training. We learned the commands to use in case of emergency. And we had grooming classes — women came and taught us how to put on our makeup and polish our fingernails.

Aside from keeping up appearances, how was sexism evident in the industry?

When I started, senior stewardesses talked about younger men being hired to be in charge of the aircraft and the crew, bypassing stewardesses who had been flying for quite a while. They discussed this in whispering tones, or sometimes not whisperings. It was always a bone of contention. Men were elected to positions that controlled the union, and they did the negotiating. Stewardesses could not really look at the job as a career because we had to quit when we got married or when we were 32. That was always in the back of your mind.

How did you become the first female purser?

In 1968, Northwest hired four men off the street to be pursers. I called the director of labor relations and said, “You must post this bid!” When they did, many women were intimidated, but I applied and got the job.

How were flight attendants’ duties different in the 1960s?

We had to work with military air contracts. In times of emergency, the U.S. military has a right to commandeer aircraft to be used on a military basis. We flew to Vietnam quite often during the Tet offensive in 1968. I was a purser, but I was new and didn’t have any seniority, so I was assigned to those flights. We’d bring 165 soldiers to Okinawa, then shuttle them to Vietnam and bring 165 back — hopefully. We got in and out of Vietnam as quickly as possible because there were missiles going back and forth.

Taking on a giant corporation is no easy feat, especially as young women in the 1960s.

We didn’t have a leg to stand on legally until the Civil Rights Act, which included discrimination based on gender. That was our renaissance.

What role did you play?

In 1967, I became the head of the union at Northwest, and negotiated the first nondiscriminatory contract with the airline. We could prove women flight attendants had equal skills and responsibilities. That’s when we brought back the stewardesses who were fired because they were over 32, or because they were overweight or because they were married.

How did you end up with a class-action lawsuit?

In 1969, negotiations for the next contract commenced. The negotiating committee was dominated by men. I had expected changes, but Northwest refused to include language that would treat women pursers the same way as male pursers. I talked to a labor lawyer, who said we had a case. Ultimately, 70 percent of the union signed on. The airline dragged it out for 15 years — took it to the Supreme Court twice, but the case was remanded back to the Federal District Court of Appeals, where Ruthie Bader Ginsburg was the judge who’d written the opinion in our favor.

At the time you filed the lawsuit, did you have any idea of the impact you would have on the industry — and on history?

No, I was just looking for equality in pay. I wasn’t thinking 40 or 50 years ahead. I was simply hoping every step on the judicial ladder would go our way.

As far as flying today, with the many reports of passengers behaving badly on flights and the stress that causes the crew, what do you think can be done to make flying better?

I’d like someone to pass a law to widen the seats. That’s one of the reasons there’s so much tension.

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