US flight attendants push for boarding wages after Air Canada deal: ‘deserve to be paid’ | US news
As you get on the plane, the flight officer welcomes you on board. They direct you to your seat and help your luggage before you give the safety show and before preparing the plane for take -off. And it has the chance to do it all for free.
However, a temporary agreement between Air Canada and thousands of flight officials triggered the hope that more airlines would end a little -known reality for many North American cabin teams and pay to flight officials when planes did not move.
“Air Canada Strike helps negotiations everywhere,” the Association of Flight Officials (AFA) -CWA President Sara Nelson representing approximately 55,000 flight officials in 20 different airlines He said in a statement. “He described the problem of ridiculous expectations for the flight officials to work without paying.”
More than 10,000 flight officials in Air Canada He walked away Last month, work is in a war with the administration that focuses on wages during the exposure of flights and deposited.
Canada’s greatest carrier Christ temporary agreement This includes at least 60 minutes of place payment in 50% of the hourly rate of an flight officer.
Nelson, the demonstrations of the workers and Air Canada’s concessions on payment, “Additional pressure on management everywhere to be real in negotiations” put.
Air Canada said that flight officials will reach 70% of the full wage for a hour before flights in narrow body jets and for 70 minutes on larger, larger -body aircraft, for 70 minutes, in four years, but the flight officials will move away from the settled application of the flights.
Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Working Congress, said the agreement could form a basis for a “new norm ünde on the continent. “This agreement is becoming a new standard,” he said, after the agreement is accepted, “Because… other unionized flight officials who have the ability to demand better at the bargaining table will look at this collective agreement to say ‘We want this’.”
Airline employees in the USA, Railway Labor LawThis is not a direct hourly fee, it is not compulsory, Fair Working Standards LawIt covers most of other public and private sector employees.
For a generation, no payment was made for flight officials for most airlines in North America to work during boarding. Delta Air Lines was the first major carrier to change it in the middle of a Union Organization Drive in 2022.
Alaska Airlines and American Airlines were followed. United Airlines, despite a temporary agreement voting in July, said he was ready to do so, although the bargaining within the scope of federal mediation was proposed in December.
Things are changing. “Air Canada and flight officials have agreed on the formula that Delta introduced in 2022 and has accepted a place on the formula that has accepted in 2022, Jo
The agreement will probably affect the contract negotiations for Westjet flight officials in 2026 in Canada.
‘Most of our passengers have no idea’
“We work harder, we work harder and we don’t charge enough to make our bills every month,” Frontier Airlines said. “Flight officials deserve to be paid for every hour we work. Airlines should not be able to choose and choose the hours they pay to their employees.”
Approximately 4,100 flight officials at Frontier Airlines voted last September to give strike authority. 99.6 % As 2023, they have been fighting for a new contract for boarding officials, including boarding payments. The Union is currently a federal mediation by airline.
Frontier Airlines did not respond to multiple comments.
Becky Black, a flight officer for about 22 years at the PSA Airlines for American Airlines, said, “We can fly more than 15 hours a day and get payment for only three and a half. “We have a flight officials living in a homeless shelter. We have flight officials living in the crew rooms. 30 years old and we have flight officials who have to return with their parents because they cannot afford to live with this business.
“Most of our passengers have no idea that we are paid only from the closure of the door to the opening of the door.”
Unlike the flight officials employed directly by the American, flight officials working for PSA are not paid until the plane door is closed and released the pilot parking brake.
BLACK, a member of PSA’s Union Negotiation Committee, 1,500 flight officials He has been negotiating for a new trade union agreement for two years, and is currently negotiating under mediation.
Black, PSA flight officials are expected to report 45 minutes before a flight and are expected to come to the airport earlier to pass the security screening. The front panel procedures, including security checks and boarding passengers, take at least 30 minutes.
“We were in office, but we have not received payment yet. We take money for flight time. And when the landing and door is opened, we stop receiving payment at that point and we disappear,” he said. “Our time has value and we deserve to be paid for our work.
The union representing flight officials in the airline, 99.2 % Vote in last September and a few pile PSA demonstrates to raise awareness and support to secure the boarding wages and wage increases in compatible with other American flight officials in trade union contracts, as they are paid 40 to 45% less than 40% less than the US flight officials in the US.
Bol We are there to hold your hand when you are afraid to fly, to talk to you or to hold your hand while you are traveling to a funeral for a loved one, if you have a heart attack in the midst of a flight, we are there to save your life or take a fever, ”he said. Iz We are there to evacuate the plane within 90 seconds to make sure you go to your family and go to your family. And we don’t want too much. We just want respect, to have a respected and livable fee for American airlines. ”
American Airlines did not respond to multiple comments. PSA Airlines did not comment on boarding payment problem. “We share the same goal as our flight officials to make an agreement,” he said. “With the support of the National Mediation Board, we continue to meet with AFA regularly and made progress to reach an agreement that our flight officials deserve.”
