United Airlines flight attendants union rejects a new contract with a 26% pay raise

The tentative contract would have provided an immediate average pay scale increase of 26.9%, cumulative pay increases of as much as 45.6% over five years, and compensated flight attendants for passenger boarding, Bloomberg reported. 

The union said in a Tuesday statement that it will survey members to identify the key issues that flight attendants would still like addressed in an agreement they want to ratify.

“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,” said Ken Diaz, president of the United Airlines chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants union that represents 28,000 members.

“Our flight attendants are the best in the industry and this tentative agreement included numerous improvements and industry-leading pay,” United said in a separate statement to Bloomberg. “We remain focused on getting our flight attendants the contract they deserve.”

United flight attendants have been in negotiations with the airline since 2021 and the group says its last pay raise was in 2020. In May, the two sides reached an “industry-leading” tentative labor deal that included 40% increases in “total economic improvements” in the first year, CNBC reported. 

Flight attendants have been pushing for increased wages and improved working conditions for years since the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, flight attendants at American Airlines finalized their latest contract after five years’ worth of negotiations. 

Labor and fuel are the largest costs for airlines. Salaries and related labor spending account for more than 32% of United’s costs in the first half of the year, Bloomberg reported.