I’m not sure how this is going to play out, but I don’t see how this is going to end well…
71% of United flight attendants vote down new contract
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen flight attendants at most major US carriers ratify new contracts, since they were otherwise working on pre-pandemic contracts, not factoring in the increased cost of living we’ve seen in recent years.
While flight attendants at most major airlines have ratified new contracts within the past year or so, United’s 28,000 flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), have been the exception. In May 2025, we finally saw the flight attendants get a new tentative contract.
These contracts are negotiated by the union leadership, but then have to be approved by the membership through a vote. The union described this as a “historic agreement,” whereby flight attendants would get huge pay increases and quality of life improvements. Over the past several weeks, the membership has been voting on this contract, and the results are now in… it seems members disagree with union leadership.
United flight attendants have rejected this contract, and not just by a little margin — 92% of eligible members cast their ballots, and 71% of those participating voted against it. That’s a resounding rejection.
This contract would’ve seen flight attendants get retroactive pay, an average of 27% raises as of the date of signing, with additional raises in subsequent years. That’s in addition to other quality of life improvements. Now flight attendants are back to the drawing board on a new contract.
Here’s how Ken Diaz, the president of the union’s United chapter, describes this:
“United Flight Attendants today voted to send a strong message to United Airlines management by rejecting a tentative agreement that didn’t go far enough to address the years of sacrifice and hard work to make the airline the success it is today. This is democracy in action.”
“Flight Attendants need substantial improvements as soon as possible. Our union will survey members as quickly as possible to identify the key issues Flight Attendants are ready to fight to achieve in an agreement they want to ratify. We always said no matter the outcome of the vote, we will fight forward and that is what we will do with the power of 28,000 Flight Attendants and our whole union standing together.”
This is not good for United management…
I’ve gotta be honest, I’m really surprised to see the margin by which this contract has been rejected. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been rejected by a small margin, but by this kind of a margin? Wow. More than two-thirds of flight attendants voted against it.
At this point, the two parties have to start over with negotiating a new contract, and that likely won’t be a fast or easy process:
- This isn’t good for United management, in terms of morale of employees, managing costs, or moving on to other priorities
- This isn’t good for United flight attendants, in terms of them getting the pay raises they so desperately need
What makes this tricky is that the proposed contract basically matched the best contracts we saw negotiated by other airlines. As much as unions like to talk a big game about “industry leading” contracts, ultimately we typically see pattern bargaining, where they end up in a similar place.
So, how could this play out? I can’t imagine management is willing to make this contract much richer. At the same time, I also don’t see how flight attendants will have a whole lot of leverage, especially under a Trump presidency. I can’t imagine his administration will be authorizing them to go on strike any time soon (even Biden avoided that).
Bottom line
United flight attendants have just voted to reject their new contract, by a huge margin no less. This contract would’ve given flight attendants substantial raises, and would have put their compensation in line with that of competitors, which recently ratified new contracts.
Obviously they’re not happy with that, and I can’t imagine it will be a smooth process from here. I’d be surprised if this doesn’t start to have an operational impact, sooner rather than later…
What do you make of United flight attendants rejecting this contract proposal?
