In a major victory for flight attendants, Alaska Airlines flight attendants may see wages balloon under a new tentative labor agreement. On Tuesday, the Association of Flight Attendants announced that the new three-year contract contains a total average pay hike of 32% for flight attendants.
One of the most striking elements in this agreement is the addition of boarding pay, which will be the first time unionised flight attendants have such a term enshrined within a legally binding contract. Based on how things currently work, American flight attendants are paid by the hour when cabin doors are closed prior to takeoff and when they are opened after landing—all this without counting time spent helping passengers with boarding. As the union underlined, “With boarding pay, we achieve significant pay increases.”
It’s also a time-critical agreement for the airline industry. Only a few years after severe COVID-19 disruptions that nearly reduced air traffic to zero, and now, with surging travel demand, so many airlines have record profits to report. Pilots and flight attendants across several US airlines have been relentlessly campaigning for better pay and benefits.
This agreement is a strong landmark for Alaska Airlines in labour relations. Their flight attendants issued a strike mandate this February for the first time three decades ago, which makes their cause highly pressing. Assuming the new tentative contract to get ratified, a potential avoidance of the strike will happen, and some improvement frames will be opened to flight attendants.
Apart from a huge pay increase and boarding allowance, the agreement has the following other benefits, including:
- Improvement in holiday pay
- Enhancement in overtime pay
- 20 months of retroactive pay
These clauses are considered big wins for the union membership; most of all, the retroactive pay is seen as an appreciation for how hard flight attendants have worked throughout this troubled period leading up to this agreement.
This tentative agreement is going to be open for the ratification process very soon. Members of the Union will have the chance to cast their votes for the contract; the balloting will end on August 14. If ratified, this agreement would raise the bar concerning flight attendant pay at all U.S. Airlines.
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Alaska Airlines did not respond immediately to a request for comment regarding the changeable agreement.
A broader trend is to be set with this development in the airline industry, where workers are using this moment of unprecedented demand to try and bargain for better conditions. If the union can come out on top in these negotiations, other airline negotiations might tumble down like dominoes to set new industry-wide standards for pay and working conditions among flight attendants.
Notably, the Alaska Airlines agreement could be a benchmark for certain airlines and unions in their future bargaining, especially with the boarding pay. It is important to set the mood for shifts in the nature of flight attendant work and compensation for it now to be considered for what it is: a very professional career to passenger safety and comfort from the moment travellers first board the aircraft.
Such pacts as this one between Alaska Airlines and its flight attendants will be a linchpin in the future of flying and airline employment practices moving forward as the industry rebuilds itself and continues to adapt to a post-pandemic reality.