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United Airlines flight attendants hold demonstration at TPA for better wages

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Published  August 28, 2024 8:23am EDT
Tampa International Airport
FOX 13 News

United flight attendants threaten to strike

Flight attendants with United Airlines are threatening to strike and are staging a series of demonstrations at airports across the U.S., including Tampa International Airport.

TAMPA, Fla. - United Airlines flight attendants plan to stage a series of demonstrations outside 20 major US airports today, including TPA, as they announce the results of a recent strike authorization vote. 

Regardless of the vote’s outcome, service will not be interrupted in the immediate future. The move comes after continued frustrations in United flight attendants’ ongoing negotiations with the airline. 

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This month United’s 28,000 flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), took a strike authorization vote. It’s the first time since the 2005 bankruptcy negotiations that flight attendants at the major airline have voted on strike authorization.

"We all know the cost of living is crazy in this country right now. I’ve been flying for 30 years and have not had a raise in five years," said United AFA Council 42 Vice President Beth Fortner-Rodgers.

United Flight attendants are demanding a double-digit pay increase and back pay for the years they’ve worked without salary movement. 

"Our contract was amendable in 2021, so we have not had a contract, or a pay raise, or any changes in lifestyle since then," explained United flight attendant Erin Dougherty during a demonstration outside Houston International Airport earlier this summer. "The cost of living right now, as everyone knows, has gone up. Prices of food, prices of gas, prices of everything. Without having a raise since 2021, we are in a fight."

Though deemed essential workers who may not strike without federal authorization, flight attendants often struggle to stay afloat on meager salaries.

According to AFA, United Flight attendants' starting salaries are just shy of $26,000 a year. AFA insists the airline can afford to pay its flight attendants more and points to the double-digit raises United recently gave its top executives. 

In 2023, United CEO Scott Kirby made $18.6 million, a 90-percent increase over his paycheck the year before, according to United’s annual proxy statement. 

The average United flight attendant would need to work 274 years to match what their company’s CEO makes in a single year, a disparity not lost on angry United Airlines workers. 

In addition to raises, United flight attendants are also demanding more schedule flexibility, job security, retirement and ground pay, a sticking point airlines have spent decades fighting against.

"I don’t think the general public knows that we do not get paid until the main cabin door has been closed, and the brakes have been released, and we’ve been pushed back from the gates," said Fortner-Rodgers.

Aside from Delta, which pays its flight attendants half their hourly rate for boarding, major US airlines do not compensate flight attendants for many of the hours they routinely spend on the ground in airports or on tarmacs. 

"[When] these crazy thunderstorms pop up, we are more frustrated than our passengers. Our goal is to get our passengers to their destination safely and quickly as possible. But we’re not receiving any flight pay," said Fortner-Rodgers. "We’re only receiving per diem, which is a dollar and some change.

United Flight Attendants plan to announce the results of their strike authorization vote from their picket lines at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. 

Workers, however, cannot walk off the job until the National Mediation Board grants them permission. 

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The board would need to determine that United flight attendants and the airline are at an impasse and further bargaining would not be productive. 

It’s rare for the NMB to side with airline unions with the threat of a work stoppage on the line, but if they do, it would trigger a 30-day "cooling off" period leading to a strike deadline. 

Recent strike authorization votes have helped move negotiations forward at Alaska, American, and Southwest Airlines. United flight attendants are hoping it will do the same for them.