CHICAGO — For the first time in nearly 20 years, United Airlines flight attendants on Wednesday voted to authorize a strike if corporate leaders don’t negotiate a contract the flight attendants say they deserve.
Workers demonstrated outside Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and airports around the country as union leaders announced that 99.9 percent of members voted to strike if their demands for pay increases, schedule flexibility and work rule improvements aren’t met.
“These airlines are making billions of dollars, and across the industry flight attendants are living on wages that are not livable wages,” said Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union. “We have some people living in cars.”
Flight attendants filed for federal mediation eight months ago and say they’ve been in contract negotiations for three years with minimal progress.
“We want United Airlines to be the world class airline that (CEO) Scott Kirby wants it to be, but under the hood, Scott, you have to treat your employees with respect and dignity,” said Ken Diaz, president of the United chapter of AFA. “The flight attendants at United Airlines have earned an industry-leading contract and we will accept nothing less.”
In a statement, an airline spokesperson 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.
The union says recent strike authorization votes have propelled negotiations forward at other airlines, including American, Alaska and Southwest.
According to a United spokesperson, 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.
According to the Association of Flight Attendants, Wednesday’s action is the first since bankruptcy negotiations in 2005 that United Airlines flight attendants voted on strike authorization.