Making Our Union Stronger in Tough Times: Flight Attendants Rebuilding Careers and Profession

AFA-CWA flight attendants have several campaigns underway to safeguard bargaining rights and to restore fairness and equity for flight attendants who have been hit hard by the industry's economic downturn.

At United Airlines, 16,000 AFA-CWA members are mounting a major bargaining mobilization to regain a standard of living seriously eroded by economic losses flight attendants faced through years of airline bankruptcies and cutbacks.

At Northwest and Delta Air Lines, where the bargaining rights of 7,000 Northwest AFA-CWA members are at risk from the airlines' pending merger, flight attendants are working together to preserve representation at Northwest and extend it to Delta's 14,000 flight attendants.

At United, AFA-CWA members are determined to recoup the economic losses that have hit their profession and other airline workers especially hard.

"We are working to rebuild our careers and restore the flight attendant profession as a good middle-class career," said Greg Davidowitch, President of the AFA United MEC.

In bargaining with United over four years ago when the airline was in bankruptcy, the flight attendants fought back against cuts in wages, benefits, and retiree health care while management sought only to protect and reward its top executives. The bankruptcy court permitted the airline to eliminate the workers' defined pension plan, but AFA-CWA fought back, restoring some retirement security with twice the amount management was originally willing to pay for a replacement defined contribution plan.

During those negotiations, United agreed to set firm dates for bargaining which got underway April 6. The airline also agreed to seek mediation assistance from the National Mediation Board if contract is not reached by August 7.

But flight attendants are ready to press for an "On-Time" agreement, having laid the foundation for the bargaining mobilization in October 2007.

Since then, thousands of United flight attendants have joined the "Flight Attendant Negotiation Network" to provide information and updates on negotiations and turn out mobilizing teams at a moment's notice. AFA-CWA flight attendants already are mobilizing and met with members of Congress in March to talk about their critical issues and airline industry bargaining.

"Fairness is at the heart of our message," said Davidowitch. "During United's bankruptcy, we dedicated ourselves to helping our airline during a painful time, yet airline executives repeatedly awarded themselves excessive bonuses in spite of a series of failed business decisions," he said.

United executives awarded themselves hundreds of millions in bonuses over the past six years. The year United exited from bankruptcy, the CEO's pay, the majority of which was a bonus, would have equaled a 10 percent pay raise for every flight attendant. 

Delta Campaign Critical to Raising Industry Standards

Ensuring that 21,000 flight attendants have bargaining rights at the merged Delta/Northwest airline is critical to raising standards for flight attendants across the industry.

AFA-CWA activists at Northwest, where flight attendants have had union representation for 60 years, have formed a strong alliance with their colleagues at Delta. Management, as it has in earlier campaigns, will be working to intimidate activists and undermine union support, but Delta flight attendants are standing strong.

"Getting a union is the most important thing in my life right now," said Marianne Bickler, a 24-year veteran at the airline. "I've devoted my career to my profession, but we have watched management tear it to shreds," she said. Two years ago, Delta flight attendants took a 47 percent pay cut and management is threatening to replace the jobs of U.S.-based flight attendants flying international routes with foreign-based workers making as little as $6,000 a year.

AFA-CWA's ongoing and effective campaign to win Family Medical Leave Act protections for flight attendants — it unanimously passed the House of Representatives this year — made Bickler and other Delta flight attendants realize what a union could mean.

"That was huge for flight attendants," said Bickler. "It's proof of what we can accomplish with a union."