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Flight attendants for Alaska Airlines are getting a big pay bump. The union representing them, the Association of Flight Attendants, just revealed the details of a tentative agreement struck with the company in June after nearly two years of negotiations. Its members will get an at least an immediate 18% raise plus retroactive pay, though the average bump will be 32%, in a big win, so-called “boarding pay.”
“We are pleased to present a groundbreaking Tentative Agreement (TA) for your consideration,” the union said in a statement. “It took 20 months of hard bargaining, but our dedication paid off. AFA Alaska is the first carrier to secure boarding pay in a legally binding contract. With boarding pay, we achieve significant pay increases that position us at the top of the industry at all steps.”
Boarding pay has been a big fight for flight attendants because they are typically are not paid for the time they spend helping passengers get on the plane. The AFA says that the provision in the tentative agreement will increase its members’ compensation by an average of 8% per flight. The union also won retroactive pay for raises missed while negotiations were ongoing, a major sticking point in the ongoing talks at American Airlines.
Alaska has been publicly conciliatory regarding its various union negotiations: “Labor rates have gone through the roof, taking several margin points away from when we were producing those margins,” CEO Ben Minicucci said at an investor conference in March regarding the company’s higher COVID-19 personnel costs, “but that’s just the way the world changes.” Still, flight attendants in February approved a strike nearly unanimously in the event that talks broke down.
“We’re pleased to reach a deal with AFA and look forward to our flight attendants working under a new contract as soon as possible,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement to Quartz.
A tentative agreement is not the same as a contract. Union members still need to vote on whether to ratify it, and those votes won’t be wrapped up until the end of the month.