For over five years, United Airlines (“United”) flight attendants, represented by their union, the Association of Flight Attendants (“AFA-UA”), have faced stalled contract negotiations with United management.[1] The AFA-UA is calling for wage increases and improved schedule flexibility.[2] The starting pay rate for a United flight attendant maxes out at about $25,992 per year,[3] and some employees have to rely on food stamps and alternative housing options because they cannot afford to pay rent.[4] Unwilling to work under these conditions any longer, the AFA-UA voted 99.99% in favor to authorize a strike on August 24, 2024.[5]
The National Labor Relations Act regulates a union’s right to collective bargaining for most private sector employers in the United States.[6] However, because air and rail carrier workers are “essential” to transportation, labor rights for air and rail carrier unions are subject to the Railway Labor Act (“RLA”).[7] The RLA established the National Mediation Board (“NMB”),[8] an agency with the dual purposes of protecting interstate commerce and providing for the prompt mediation of air and rail carrier labor disputes.[9] The RLA requires air and rail carrier unions to request authorization[10] to strike from the NMB.[11] Notably, the NMB will only permit, or “authorize,” a strike if negotiations between employer and employees have reached an impasse and all other avenues for potential resolution have been exhausted.[12] Therefore, the AFA-UA faces an additional obstacle in exercising their right to collective self-help methods: receiving permission to strike from the NMB.[13]
The NMB has authorized only two air carrier strikes since 2006,[14] representing a major deviation from the dozens of air carrier strikes that took place in the 1980s and 1990s.[15] The NMB’s rare approval of strike authorization significantly curtails unions’ ability to bargain using self-help tactics, such as strikes.[16] Moreover, without a material threat of strike, unions may struggle to hold management accountable, leaving workers without leverage to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.[17]
Members of Congress recognized this dangerous cycle earlier this year.[18] In May 2024, 178 Congress members urged the NMB to use all means necessary in resolving contract negotiations.[19] In June 2024, 32 senators called on the NMB to expedite the mediation process between airline workers and management.[20] The senators contended, “airline carriers do not feel pressured to reach agreements quickly, likely because the flight attendants’ ability to strike has rarely been allowed to be exercised.”[21]
Unfortunately, the AFA-UA is not the only air carrier union facing prolonged contract negotiations. For example, the collective bargaining agreement for Alaska Airlines flight attendants was amendable in October 2023,[22] but their union has been in contract negotiations with management since January 2023.[23] Even more drastic, the collective bargaining agreement for American Airlines flight attendants was amendable in 2019, but their union was stuck in negotiations with management for five years.[24] As a result, the Congressional Labor Caucus believed that “[American Airlines] management [was] intentionally dragging out negotiations.”[25] Although the American Airlines flight attendant union authorized a strike, reporting a 99.47% vote in favor, the NMB did not grant strike authorization, prolonging negotiations for a year longer.[26] The union finally obtained a favorable contract on September 12, 2024,[27] after the Department of Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, Department of Labor Secretary, Julie Su, and over 200 Congress members called upon the NMB to take action.[28] Nevertheless, American Airlines flight attendants were forced to earn untenable wages for an additional year beyond their union’s strike authorization.[29]
Prolonged contract negotiations—coupled with the fact that the NMB only acted after Congress and two executive agencies intervened[30]—raises questions about the NMB’s efficacy. Since 2010, the NMB has almost categorically declined to authorize a strike for air carrier workers to protect interstate commerce.[31] By withholding a union’s right to strike, the NMB enables an air carrier management to negotiate without good faith, under the assumption that there is little to lose by not meeting the needs of their workers.[32] To protect the AFA-UA and other air carrier unions from falling into the same cycle as the American Airlines union, the NMB must find a balance by ensuring that the prompt resolution of labor disputes receives equal priority as the protection of interstate commerce, as the livelihoods of over one million U.S. air carrier workers are at stake.[33]
[1] Flight Attendants at United Airlines Vote 99.99% to Authorize a Strike, Ass’ɴ. ᴏғ Fʟɪɢʜᴛ Aᴛᴛᴇɴᴅᴀɴᴛs-CWA, AFL-CIO (Aug. 28, 2024), https://www.afacwa.org/united_fas_vote_authorize_strike [https://perma.cc/L4C7-CRGK].
[2] Andrew Ramos, Flight attendants for Chicago-based United Airlines vote to authorize strike, CBS Nᴇᴡs, (Aug. 28, 2024), https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/united-flight-attendants-strike-vote/ [https://perma.cc/6PXW-4YSD].
[3] Natalie B. Compton, ‘Barely surviving’: Some flight attendants are facing homelessness and hunger, Wᴀsʜ. Pᴏsᴛ (Aug. 26, 2024), https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2024/08/26/flight-attendant-pay-flying-hours-homelessness/ [https://perma.cc/AR5X-H2N4].
[4] Ramos, supra note 2.
[5] Flight Attendants at United Airlines Vote 99.99% to Authorize a Strike, supra note 1.
[6] The NLRB Process, NLRB, https://www.nlrb.gov/resources/nlrb-process (last visited Sept. 23, 2024) [https://perma.cc/C3QL-GXLK].
[7] 45 U.S.C. § 160.
[8] 45 U.S.C. § 154.
[9] 45 U.S.C. § 151(a).
[10] Unlike the RLA, unions subject to the National Labor Relations Act are not required to request authorization from the NLRB to strike. See generally 29 U.S.C. § 151.
[11] 45 U.S.C. § 155.
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
[14] Letter from Melany Stansbury, U.S. House of Representatives, to Deirdre Hamilton, NMB Chair (May 14, 2024) (on file with Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, AFL-CIO).
[15] Amidst the recession in the early 1980s, struggling airlines companies cut wages and benefits, which ultimately ushered in a wave of strikes. Airline Deregulation: When Everything Changed, Sᴍɪᴛʜsᴏɴɪᴀɴ Nᴀᴛ’ʟ Aɪʀ & Sᴘᴀᴄᴇ Mᴜsᴇᴜᴍ (Dec. 17, 2021), https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/airline-deregulation-when-everything-changed [https://perma.cc/7UA6-LFVK].
[16] Id.; Letter from Bernard Sanders, U.S. Senate, to Deirdre Hamilton, NMB Chair (June 12, 2024) (on file with Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, AFL-CIO) (“Since 2006, the NMB has only released airline workers to strike twice—most recently, Spirit Airlines Pilots in 2010.”).
[17] See generally Flight Attendants at United Airlines Vote 99.99% to Authorize a Strike, supra note 1.
[18] Press Release, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, 178 Members of Congress Sign Right to Strike Letter (May 17, 2024) (on file with author).
[19] Letter from Melany Stansbury, U.S. House of Representatives, to Deirdre Hamilton, NMB Chair (May 14, 2024), supra note 12.
[20] Letter from Bernard Sanders, U.S. Senate, to Deirdre Hamilton, NMB Chair, supra note 14.
[21] Id.
[22] Alaska Airlines Updates, Aɪʀᴄʀᴀғᴛ Mᴇᴄʜᴀɴɪᴄs Fʀᴀᴛᴇʀɴᴀʟ Ass’ɴ. (Apr. 30, 2024), https://www.amfanational.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_page.cfm&page=Alaska20Airlines [https://perma.cc/8VAR-DW7R].
[23] AMFA-Alaska Negotiations Update 1, Aɪʀᴄʀᴀғᴛ Mᴇᴄʜᴀɴɪᴄs Fʀᴀᴛᴇʀɴᴀʟ Ass’ɴ (Jan. 19, 2023), https://www.amfanational.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=886100 [https://perma.cc/PC9B-C4QW].
[24] Leslie Josephs, American Airlines flight attendants ratify new contract with immediate raises topping 20%, CNBC (Sep. 12, 2019), https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/12/american-airlines-flight-attendants-ratify-new-contract-with-immediate-raises-topping-20percent.html [https://perma.cc/CX2V-SZGF].
[25] Letter from Congressional Labor Caucus to Robert Isom, CEO, American Airlines (Jun.12 2024) (on file with author).
[26] Id. at 20; Josephs, supra note 24.
[27] Id.
[28] Id.
[29] Id.
[30] American Airlines flight attendants ratify new contract with immediate raises topping 20%, supra note 22.
[31] Id. at 17; Letter from Bernard Sanders, U.S. Senate, to Deirdre Hamilton, NMB Chair, supra note 16 (recognizing the last NMB strike authorization to have taken place in 2010).
[32] See generally Flight Attendants at United Airlines Vote 99.99% to Authorize a Strike, supra note 1.
[33] U.S. Cargo and Passenger Airlines Gained 1,513 Jobs in July 2024, U.S. Dᴇᴘᴛ ᴏғ Tʀᴀɴsᴘ. (Sep. 10, 2024), https://www.bts.gov/newsroom/us-cargo-and-passenger-airlines-gained-1513-jobs-july-2024 [https://perma.cc/MSU5-JSQJ].
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