Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Reject Tentative Agreement

Alaska Airlines flight attendants voted Wednesday to reject their union’s tentative agreement.

“This is democracy in action and flight attendants always have the final say on any contract,” the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, representing Alaska Air flight attendants, said in a statement to reporters.

The move follows a nearly two-year disagreement as the airline’s flight attendants seek to negotiate their first new contract in a decade.

They claim that Alaska Airlines has given significant pay raises to pilots, but is not offering a living wage to some of its flight attendants.

“There is still work to be done,” the statement said. “Flight attendants need improvements as soon as possible. Our union will continue to fight for the contract Alaska flight attendants deserve.”

The three-year tentative deal that was rejected included a 32 percent pay increase over the life of the deal, payment for boarding time before the plane left the ground and 21 months of back pay to cover time spent negotiating.

Alaska Airlines continues to negotiate and has offered what the airline calls an industry-leading proposal, including an immediate 15 percent pay scale increase, according to an online statement from the airline.

AFA Alaska represents more than 6,500 flight attendants.

The flight attendant vote that ended Wednesday saw a turnout of 92.4 percent of eligible voters, the union said in an online statement.

Sixty-eight percent of voters opposed the deal and 32 percent voted for it, the union said.

The union plans to survey its members to determine the key issues that need to be addressed in negotiations, the union said.

In February, Alaska Airlines flight attendants authorized a strike for the first time in 30 years. But before a strike can take place, the National Mediation Council must declare negotiations deadlocked, putting both sides into a 30-day “cooling off” period, which will result in a strike deadline.

Next steps could also include “additional mobilization efforts that will be necessary to pressure management, increase our leverage and secure additional funding in a new interim agreement,” the union said.