MSP flight attendants from multiple carriers rally together on worldwide day of action

February 14, 2024 by

Flight attendants marched Feb. 13 during a solidarity action at MSP’s Terminal 1.

An estimated 100,000 U.S.-based flight attendants are working under expired union contracts, and their collective frustration boiled over yesterday at Minneapolis-St. Paul and dozens of other airports worldwide.

American Airlines, Southwest, United and Sun Country flight attendants – all working under expired contracts – marched outside Terminal 1 during the Flight Attendant Day of Action rally at MSP Airport. Employees of Delta Air Lines and its regional carrier Endeavor Air joined the rally too.

“The industry is hurting right now as far as flight attendants go and their wages,” American Airlines flight attendant Todd Smiertelmy said. “We’re all looking for our money. Give it to us.”

U.S. carriers have largely returned to profitability since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the airline industry anticipates serving a record number of travelers in 2024.

Flight attendants have seen the increased interest in travel firsthand, United flight attendant Brittany Kaiser said, but they also have seen “more issues that are arising constantly in flight or, mostly, during boarding, which is the time when we’re not getting paid.”

United expects its flight attendants at the gate well before a scheduled departure to prepare the cabin for flight. But like most other airlines, the carrier does not consider flight attendants to be on the clock until the cabin door closes.

“We’re helping get people to their seats, get the bags up and make sure the bags are correct; we’re prepping for the flight, counting meals, double checking to make sure we have all our supplies, setting up for the flight,” Kaiser said. “We’re not paid for any of it, but we’re required to do it.”

Getting paid for boarding the airplane is among the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA’s top priorities in bargaining a new contract covering 25,000 United flight attendants like Kaiser, who is based in Houston, but the process has been slow moving. Their last contract expired in 2021.

It’s been five years without a contract – or wage scale increase – for Smiertelmy and other members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union at American Airlines. And flight attendants at MSP-based Sun Country, members of Teamsters Local 120, saw their last union contract expire in 2014.

“It really hurts morale, I can tell you that,” Smiertelmy said, adding that talks with American have long since reached a “stalemate.”

The two sides are in federal mediation, but the union has a pending request before the National Mediation Board – its second in the last two years – to be released into a 30-day “cooling off period,” after which they could legally go on strike under the Railway Labor Act. Smiertelmy, who lives in Minneapolis but is based out of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, was among several flight attendants carrying “Ready to Strike” signs at the MSP rally.

“We don’t want to strike,” Smiertelmy said. “We want the company to sit down and have serious talks with us and just share a piece of the pie.”

Local 120 and Sun Country entered mediation in December and have a second session scheduled next week. In bargaining last year, the airline’s “final offer” was rejected by 96% of union members who participated in the vote.

Even flight attendants with a current union contract said their airlines aren’t doing enough to make the job sustainable, particularly for new hires. Endeavor’s Trina Johnson, a local executive council president of AFA-CWA, said her union is trying to bargain a letter of agreement with the Delta subsidiary that would improve working conditions for its 1,400 flight attendants.

“Regional flight attendants live at poverty level,” Johnson said. “Most of them have a very difficult time in the first five years that they fly trying to pay rent and buy food and even commute to their bases.”

Their unions may bring different issues and priorities to the bargaining table, Sun Country’s Tanya Devito said, but flight attendants share a common demand for more respect for the work that they do.

“It is invigorating to have all of these flight attendants coming together, but it’s also very sad because it says that (airlines) are not taking us seriously, that everybody is waiting for a contract,” she said. “It says they don’t value us.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Machinists OK contracts with United Airlines

October 29, 2013 by

International_Association_Of_Machinists_and_Aerospace_Workers_logo1Members of the International Association of Machinists voted yesterday to approve new, nationwide collective bargaining agreements with United Airlines covering employees in the airline’s fleet service, passenger-service and storekeeper workgroups.

The agreements cover more than 28,000 workers at United, Continental and subsidiary airlines, including 158 members of Machinists Local 1833 who work at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport. The contracts go into effect Nov. 1 and, because contracts under the Railway Labor Act do not expire, become amendable Jan. 1, 2017.

Union members voted down tentative agreements with United in April. In negotiations since then, workers agreed to concessions related to vacation benefits in exchange for increased pension contributions and wage improvements.

Members will receive payments for those wage increases retroactive to January 2010, when their previous contract with United became amendable, Local 1833 President A.J. Lindell said. For most Local 1833 members, those retroactive payments will be between $6,000 and $10,000.

“That’s nothing to shake a stick at,” he said. “Overall, I think people were satisfied with the agreements.”

The union also succeeded in beating back United’s plan to outsource more customer-service jobs to non-union, low-wage contractors, which drew protest at MSP earlier this year.

The tentative agreement voted down by members in April would have enabled United to resume outsourcing jobs after the contract becomes amendable in 2017. The contracts approved by Machinists this week push that date back to Jan. 15, 2018 – and include a “poison pill” as incentive for the company not to drag out negotiations, Lindell said.

“If there is no agreement, everybody would get a 3 percent raise on that date,” he said.

Above-wing employees – customer-service, ticket and gate agents – in Local 1833 approved their agreement with 90 percent voting “yes.” Local 1833’s below-wing employees – mostly baggage handlers – approved their agreement with 60 percent voting “yes.”

The contracts received “yes” votes from about 70 percent of voting Machinists nationwide.

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Machinists picket United Airlines for outsourcing middle class jobs

August 27, 2013 by
Machinists Local 1833 members picketing outside Terminal 1 today include (L to R) Derrick Bollea, A.J. Lindell and Greg Durand.

Machinists Local 1833 members picketing outside Terminal 1 today include (L to R) Derrick Bollea, A.J. Lindell and Greg Durand.

United Airlines’ union employees greeted travelers approaching Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport today, raising public awareness of the airline’s plan to outsource more customer-service jobs to non-union, low-wage contractors – a plan that could impact jobs based in the Twin Cities.

At its peak, the daylong informational picket line outside Terminal 1 drew 25 members of International Association of Machinists Local 1833. Holding “Outsourcing Is Wrong” signs, they attracted horn honks and waves of support from passing drivers.

United laid off about 240 Machinists union members earlier this year, shifting their work to low-cost vendors – like subcontractors – at six U.S. airports where the airline has a minimal presence.

Another round of outsourcing is in the works, union members say, and it is likely to hit airports where United employs between 50 and 150 workers. The Machinists represent about 200 MSP-based United workers.

“We’re within that realm,” Local 1833 President A.J. Lindell said of the next round of layoffs. “If it happens, all these good-paying, middle-class jobs are gone. United replaces them with minimum-wage work and minimal customer service.”

Similar actions have taken place at airports across the country this summer – including one today at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, a hub of operations for United.

The MSP action, Lindell said, was the first staged at one of United’s “line stations,” or non-hub operations.

“We think good corporate profits come from good middle-class jobs,” Lindell said. “United made $469 million in the second quarter alone last year. “Their financial justification for outsourcing 200 jobs is that it will save them $1 million annually. It seems a bit unnecessary, to say the least.”

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