AFA Has Eleven Days to Secure Their Pay Deal. It’s Not Looking Good

Since the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) unveiled the full conditions of a new pay agreement for flight attendants and United Airlines, misinformation has been swirling online. With less than two weeks till voting closes, AFA-CWA seem panicked, but is this exclusively because of false narratives in the media? Or are they secretly worried about getting the prospective deal over the line?  

In early June, journalist Matthew Klint at Live and Let Fly published a blog reporting on the six clauses that could derail United’s new flight attendant contract. The piece detailed new contract language calling on flight attendants to be “reasonably available” on layovers and clauses that would allow United to reroute staff mid-trip due to an “operational necessity”. Even more alarmingly, the contract could allegedly be renegotiated mid-term if United claimed hardship, effectively making the past five years of stagnant pay and negotiations futile.  

Less than two days later, Klint shared an update on his article saying that AFA-CWA had reached out to clarify that many of these “questionable clauses” were not even part of the deal. Like an angry high school teacher correcting homework, Klint slashed through his own article, annotating in red pen all the information that he had originally got wrong. He went on to speculate about the motive for sharing such detailed false information, saying he had received the details from a “very trustworthy source”.  

Okay it’s Happening! Everybody Stay Calm!  

As this online drama played out in real time, it became clear that the leadership team at AFA-CWA were panicked. While union leadership would argue that it’s solely because of false narratives being propagated on social media and elsewhere, the misinformation did not start with the Live and Let Fly article. It began months ago.  

Back in May, AFA-CWA sent an internal memo pleading with members to accept the tentative United contract at face value. In the leaked document, they argued against a key principle of negotiation strategy – never ever accept the first offer – and said this was simply “not very good advice.” Besides, the TA was only a “first offer in name”, and the reality was that the negotiation team had already “rejected hundreds of company proposals” and “squeezed every penny out of the company.”   

The memo quickly descended into a warning with AFA-CWA leadership detailing that it would take another six months to get a second proposal if this deal is rejected. It’s a pertinent warning to anyone, not least United flight attendants, who have spent five years on stagnant pay, desperately trying to make ends meet while watching their peers at Delta and American receive boarding pay, wage increases, and generous profit-sharing schemes.  

If there was an undercurrent of stress in that leaked memo, then we can safely say that AFA-CWA’s press team has now gone into full panic. Rather than focusing on proactive comms that convince United members about the positive aspects of the deal, the press team is devoting resources and capacity to trawling the internet looking for incorrect information about the contract.  

We know this first-hand because last week, USTN itself was approached by AFA-CWA’s press team, who asked us to remove our infographics on the prospective United deal, as they contained information from the original Live and Let Fly article. They also asked that information was ran past the union with AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson recently saying it’s been “disheartening” to see blogs that do not “check with the union for accuracy.” USTN asked AFA-CWA to officially comment on the misleading narratives circulating on the internet, but they did not respond.  

Why does AFA-CWA seem so panicked about the deal?  

AFA-CWA would like to argue that all criticism of the contract is merely disinformation. But there are real aspects of the deal that fall far below members expectations. For example, with an average pay increase of 26.9% across all seniority levels, the deal barely compensates for the 24% loss in real-time earnings that United staff have suffered due to inflation. It also falls short of the 28% pay increase that AFA-CWA were pushing for. Beyond this, AFA-CWA also backed down on ground pay, which would have been an industry first, allowing flight attendants to be compensated for briefings, check-ins, and delays. AFA-CWA ultimately settled for boarding pay – a mechanism already in place for years at Delta, Southwest, and American.  

While it is understandable that AFA-CWA had to make some significant concessions to get the tentative contract agreed, the issue is that they consistently said a 28% wage bump and ground pay were non-negotiable and the core reason that talkshad been ongoing for multiple years. Maybe they are hoping that United members are so exhausted after years of stagnant wages and zero boarding pay that they will vote yes in the ballot box.  

Delays, Delays, Delays.  

The United deal is particularly disappointing, given that AFA convinced members to play hardball with the airline for five years. Once their deal expired during the pandemic, the union decided that there was no urgency in securing a new deal and gave their chief negotiator to rival union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), in the hope that American would set a precedent that United could simply replicate. This sadly backfired after American’s contract included pay increases of only 20.5%, far below the 33% wage increase they had been calling for, with 13% of members revolting against the deal.  

The AFA-CWA leadership team appear stressed, and with just eleven days until voting closes, it is not surprising. While it could partly be a result of false information online, it could also be rooted in leadership’s fears that they have not done enough to get the contract ratified. In truth, the deal barely compensates for inflation, replicates boarding pay, which is already an industry norm, and took over five years of negotiations to even get a proposal. Only time will tell if AFA-CWA’s fears are well founded.