Dec 13, 2018 - Flight Attendants Protest Staffing Cuts

Today, AFA-CWA Flight Attendants at United are joining together around the globe to protest the airline's newly-announced staffing cuts on international flights. The airline says pre-plating meals for business class passengers on these flights reduces the need for Flight Attendant staffing and matches lower standards implemented at American and Delta.

Pre-plated meals are not a substitute for Flight Attendants on planes. Flight Attendant staffing is about safety and service. Flight Attendants serve as critical first responders, preparing for the worst and planning for the best on every flight.

Airlines are making record profits. In the last two years alone, Delta, American, Southwest, and United have allocated $12 billion in profits to stock buybacks. None of those profits are being reinvested in the airline or the people on planes.

Flight Attendants are calling on United to invest in the people on United Airlines' flights – and stand up for increased staffing across the industry. The flying experience will continue to erode as long as airlines only answer to Wall Street.

United Flight Attendants are joining together around the globe to protest United's newly announced staffing cuts on international flights.

New York Magazine

Editorial employees at New York Magazine announced this week that they are forming a union with the NewsGuild of New York-CWA Local 31003, and are requesting voluntary recognition from parent company New York Media.

The union at New York would cover approximately 160 full- and part-time print and web staffers at New York Media including Vulture, The Cut, Intelligencer, Grub Street, and The Strategist.

The employee group said that they believe that joining together in a union "is the best way to address our grievances in the workplace and allow us to continue publishing stories as honest, gritty, and exceptional as this city. We hope that New York Media will recognize our union so that we can begin an amicable collective-bargaining process and build a stronger, more equitable company for another 50 years."

AT&T Midwest and AT&T Legacy T

Have questions about what's going on in CWA bargaining with AT&T Midwest and Legacy T? 

Next Monday, December 17, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, hear from CWA President Chris Shelton, D4 Vice President Linda Hinton, T&T Vice President Lisa Bolton, and the Bargaining Chairs of the two committees on a town hall call. Members will have an opportunity to ask questions.

How to sign up for the call:

AT&T Midwest: text MIDWESTCALL to 49484.
Legacy T: text LEGTCALL to 49484.

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Envoy Air

This week, passenger service agents at Envoy Air are making sure passengers know about their fight for a fair contract with family-supporting wages. Agents at airports across the country are distributing flyers asking passengers to donate to their local food banks, which many Envoy agents rely on to put food on the table.

The agents at Envoy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines, are paid as little as $9.48 an hour and are bargaining their first contract. The next bargaining session is set for January 22.

CWA joined a diverse coalition of 65 labor, progressive, pro-democracy, civil rights, and environmental organizations in support of the comprehensive package of democracy reforms that House Democrats have committed to bring to the floor as the first order of business in the new Congress, sending a letter to House members urging them to support the crucial reforms.

H.R.1, sponsored by Representative John Sarbanes (D-Md.), contains reforms essential to fixing our political system, including voting rights, money-in-politics, redistricting, and government ethics reforms.

"The American people know that Washington is not representing their best interests when millions of eligible voters cannot vote because they are not registered, when voting laws are used to disenfranchise millions of Americans, and when citizens are improperly purged from voter rolls," CWA and the other groups wrote. "The American people know that Washington is not representing their best interests when wealthy Americans give huge contributions to Super PACs and dark money groups to influence our elections and to buy influence over government policies, at the great expense of ordinary Americans who are not empowered in the political process."

"We call on the House to seize this historic opportunity to repair our political system and strengthen our democracy," the letter concludes.

AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson joined the AFL-CIO's State of the Unions podcast to discuss what it means to be an active union member, Flight Attendant staffing, the role of our Flight Attendant heroes during the events of September 11th, the #MeToo movement in the airline industry, and more.

Listen here.