Flight attendants for Chicago-based United Airlines vote to authorize strike
CHICAGO (CBS) – United Airlines flight attendants voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike if contract negotiations continued to hit a dead end.
With a November deadline looming, as many as 28,000 workers said they could end up on a picket line. The United flight attendants gave an overwhelming thumbs up to authorize the strike, with a historic 99.9% of the workers voting "yes."
It was the first time in nearly 20 years that United flight attendants voted to authorize a strike. It's a move the workers union, the Asociation of Flight Attendants, said was fueled by inaction by the Chicago-based carrier to negotiate in good faith. The union members have been working with an amended contract that expired in 2021.
Flight attendants have been asking for a double-digit base pay increase, as well as pay upgrades for schedule flexibility, on-ground duties, and retroactive pay.
Many flight attendants said the current wage is not enough, especially as the cost of living continues to rise in major cities like Chicago and San Francisco.
"I'm not able to save any money," said Amanda Tomaszewski, who's been a United flight attendant for eight years. "A lot of us are surviving on food stamps and some of our colleagues out in San Francisco are sleeping in their cars because they cannot afford to live right now."
In a statement to CBS News Chicago, a spokesperson for United said, "We continue to work toward an industry-leading agreement for our flight attendants, including negotiations this week and every month through November. Both sides have been actively engaged in these negotiations facilitated by the federal mediator requested by the union. We remain eager to reach an agreement. To be clear, there is no work stoppage or labor disruption. Instead, off-duty flight attendants are exercising their right to conduct an informational picket. Federal law bars a strike until after a lengthy process that includes a release from mediation, which can only be granted by the National Mediation Board."
Still, the union says the negotiations are taking too long.
"The cost of living is the biggest thing. We need to get those flight attendants to a living wage," said Scott Pejas, the president of the Local Council 8 AFA. "The company has the money. They're showing it. They are giving out double-digit increases to our executives. Our pilots have just renegotiated their contracts and its high time flight attendants do the same."
Robert Bruno, the director of the Labor Education Program at the University of Illinois, explained that the union is "trying to move people at the bargaining table, and one of the ways, perhaps the best way, the union could do that is that they could say to the airlines 'All our members are behind this. They are not divided.'"
There was no timeline for a potential strike as of Wednesday. The union said the strike authorization simply puts United leadership on notice to come back to the table to negotiate a fair contract for both sides.
