Six years after combining workforces with Continental in a merger, United Airlines announced considerable progress in labor relations in a single day.
The Chicago-based airline’s 25,000 flight attendants ratified a new contract Friday, with 53 percent voting in favor of the deal, the Association of Flight Attendants said in a news release. Later that afternoon, United said it also reached an agreement in principle with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on what, if approved, would be the first joint contract for the airline’s approximately 9,000 technicians.
United CEO Oscar Munoz has consistently said labor relations are a top priority for the airline.
“When I took this job last year, I promised to turn the page and write a new chapter in our approach to labor and management relations at United. What matters is proof, however, not promises. Thanks to today’s vote, I am proud to say that so far this year we’ve ratified new agreements covering more than 65,000 of our employees,” Munoz said in a news release announcing the results of the flight attendants’ ratification vote.
The five-year agreement approved by the flight attendants includes double-digit pay raises at all seniority levels, with top pay rates rising 18 to 31 percent, according to the union.
The deal also includes profit-sharing, continuation of a flight attendant-specific health care plan with new medical plan options, and maintained and improved retirement plans.
“The contract provides immediate economic gains, sets a new industry standard and ensures flight attendants can achieve the benefits of a fully integrated airline,” Sara Nelson, the association’s president, said in the release.
Flight attendants from United and Continental have been operating under different work rules since the airlines merged in 2010. That means they could only work with crew from the same legacy airline, on planes assigned to that airline, making scheduling or recovering from delays and cancellations more complicated.
The new contract will run roughly $1.9 billion over the five years — or about $380 million per year — above the combined cost of the current flight attendant contracts, according to the union.
The new contract for the flight attendants follows separate deals the airline recently negotiated with pilots and dispatchers.
United employees including airport workers, security officers and other staffers also ratified a new contract in April.
Bob Fisher, a representative with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, declined to comment on the specifics of the deal the union representing technicians and United agreed to in principle as the parties are still finalizing the language. Once completed, it will be sent to union members for a 30-day voting period.
The technicians rejected a contract proposal in February, but Fisher said a lot of progress has been made since then.
“That deal was a last, best and final by the company. It wasn’t recommended by the union committee,” he said.
Negotiations on a joint contract for the technicians have been going on since July 2013, Fisher said. Figuring out how to merge two separate benefits systems was a challenge, he said.
But both Fisher and Taylor Garland, spokeswoman for the flight attendants union, said it had been easier to make progress under Munoz than his predecessor, Jeff Smisek.
Negotiations between United and the flight attendants had been going on for three years by the time he stepped down last fall, and United management seemed to have “no interest in getting a deal,” Garland said.
“We’re excited we have a deal today, and we’re going to look forward,” said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy.
The union needed a majority of voting flight attendants to ratify the contract. More than 90 percent of members participated, and 53 percent were in favor of the deal.
While not a landslide, Garland called it “decisive,” particularly for post-merger negotiations that involve changes for all parties.
During the talks, the union pushed back against worker questions about the lack of a signing bonus, saying meaningful bonuses would have required giving up more valuable gains in wages and compensation.
Some of the contract’s economic provisions will go into effect in September, but Garland said it will take a year to a year and a half to complete the switch.
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