Alaska Airlines and its flight attendants have reached a tentative agreement on a groundbreaking three-year contract deal that likely sets a path for deals at other larger airlines including American and United.
Just as a Delta pilot contract in March 2023 set the stage for future pilot contracts at American, United and other carriers, the tentative deal at Alaska seems to break the dam of slow-moving flight attendant contract talks that have taken years.
“We were able to get Alaska to lead the industry, something they would never do in the past,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents Alaska’s 7,000 flight attendants. “It helps to raise the standard and makes it very hard for these other carriers to say they should pay less, when in fact they should pay more.
“Others are in negotiations, which hopefully doesn’t remain true for long,” she said.
The Alaska deal includes average pay raises of 32% over three years, as well as boarding pay, retro pay and reassignment pay when management fails to maintain schedule integrity. The tentative deal was announced last week; terms were announced to members on Tuesday night.
Nelson attributed the settlement to the strike threat enabled by Alaska flight attendants’ February vote to authorize a strike, and to pressure on the airline to gain labor union support for its planned merger with Hawaiian Airlines, which awaits approval from the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The credible strike threat and the leverage around the merger pushed them higher,” she said in an interview Wednesday. If the merger is approved, Nelson noted, “We’re back at the table next year.” And if not, the relatively short three-year-deal means that, “Alaska flight attendants get back to the table in two years, well in advance of other flight attendant contracts.”
Nelson listed aspects of the Alaska contract that represent improvements over compensation levels at Delta, where AFA is seeking to organize flight attendants.
She said Alaska will offer boarding pay at a higher rate than non-union Delta. Depending on trip length, Alaska boarding pay could add between 5% and 34% to the value of each trip. “With four or five boardings a day, that’s a significant change,” she said. Additionally, Alaska flight attendants will get retroactive pay back to the contract amendable date about 21 months ago, and Alaska flight attendants will get reassignment pay when their schedules are changed during trips.
“If you are reassigned, you get 150%,” Nelson said. “Management pays when it fails” to provide schedule integrity. “This does not exist at Delta.”
Alaska’s deal appears to have a direct impact on ongoing negotiations between American Airlines and its 27,000 flight attendants, who are represented by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.
“Everyone understands that it’s helpful to have the Alaska agreement in terms of trying to close out the American negotiations,” Nelson said. “It is one more validator of the minimum American needs to put in the contract.”
The Alaska AFA chapter announced on Saturday June 22 that it had a tentative agreement with the carrier. A week later, in an unusual move, the National Mediation Board called negotiators for American and its flight attendants back to Washington for weekend talks.
In those talks, “After two days of intensive negotiations, progress was made, but an agreement was not reached,” members of the APFA negotiating committee said Sunday in a message to members.
“We will be providing more information on the status of bargaining and the next steps to reach an agreement,” the committee said. “We can say, however, that the solidarity and the credible strike threat from the membership has and continues to prompt real progress in these negotiations.”
On Monday, Ed Sicher, president of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American’s 16,000 pilots, backed the carrier’s flight attendants in a prepared statement. “APA wholeheartedly supports their efforts to secure a fair contract,” he said.
“If the NMB declares a 30-day cooling-off period and starts the clock on a potential flight attendant strike, it would have an adverse impact on the airline’s bottom line as passengers take their business elsewhere to avoid the risk of disruption in their travel plans — and a strike would be tremendously costly,” Sicher said. “A negotiated solution is always the preferred outcome in Section 6, and we urge management to rethink its approach to bargaining with the APFA before it’s too late.”
