Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Given “Final Offer” With Warning

Flight attendants at Alaska Airlines have been presented with a revised contract offer that comes with a warning from the union negotiating on their behalf: ratify this or forget about any pay raise for years to come.

New Tentative Contract Agreement For Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Comes With Warning

Hailing a “short but vigorous” round of negotiations, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA)–the union representing flight attendants at Alaska Airlines–has presented a new tentative agreement, dubbed TA2, to flight attendants. It includes:

32% pay raise (on average)
retro pay dating back to 2022 (when the contract became amenable)
boarding pay

But it also comes with a warning.

After a short but vigorous fight at the bargaining table, the Negotiating Committee (NC) is pleased to present a successor Tentative Agreement (TA2). You were very clear about specific disappointments of TA1 after it was voted down, and your NC listened closely and addressed many of those issues in TA2 bargaining.

Further, our federal mediator and the National Mediation Board have been direct in their communication to us that should TA2 not ratify, they would be unlikely to devote further resources to mediating a “TA3.” Management also indicated they will allocate their bargaining resources toward merger considerations and JCBA negotiations.

The choice before us is clear; your vote will either solidify the enhancements secured in TA2 or it will indicate your desire to retain our current contract without any improvements in pay and working conditions until the end of JCBA negotiations, which is likely to take years.

Why the warning?

First, because the threat of a strike is not credible with a new sheriff in town (aka the Trump administration). Even though Trump courted unions heavily and has appointed Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Labor Secretary, his picks for the National Mediation Board during his first term were very “pro-business” and there is no indication that will be different in his second term.

Second, because Alaska Airlines has historically relied on a lower-cost wage structure for its flight attendants…it’s part of its business model. The new tentative agreement objectively represents a huge improvement over the existing contract but going beyond could undermine all the planning and forecasting that has gone into making Alaska’s merger with Hawaiian Airlines a financial success.

New Flight Attendant Contract For Alaska Airlines Would Help Junior Flight Attendants

As part of the TA2, new hires would see boarding pay instituted at $16/hour, half of their regular pay. Meanwhile, flight attendants at American Airlines get $10.44 an hour and Delta Air Lines flight attendants make only slightly more. United Airlines flight attendants do not receive boarding pay (yet).

I’ve long found it strange that senior flight attendants make more money than nurses while junior flight attendants struggle to survive because their pay is so low. The idea of “equal pay for equal work” strikes me as reasonable and just and the idea that Alaska or any carrier would be unable to retain talent without steep proliferations in pay based on seniority strikes me as spurious.

Yes, the system in its current form does mean that folks make a career out of it and that does reduce training and HR costs over time. But it pits junior and senior flight attendants against one another (since their interests do not align) and makes it harder to recruit quality candidates in the first place (not that any carrier has trouble finding flight attendants…).

CONCLUSION

Flight attendants at Alaska Airlines have essentially been warned to take it or leave it with the latest agreement on the table. It includes a 32% pay hike, increased boarding pay, retro pay, and more fringe benefits.

My prediction: quick ratification.

image: AFA-CWA