Members of Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) are voting through Aug. 14 on a new three-year agreement with Alaska Airlines. The agreement, announced June 24, would cover roughly 6,900 Alaska flight attendants. Their pay and conditions have been frozen since December 2022, when their previous agreement became “amendable” in the parlance of the air and rail unions that are subject to the Railway Labor Act. That law severely restricts workers’ right to strike, but Alaska and AFA were nearing the end of a bargaining timetable that could have ended in a strike. In February, Alaska flight attendants voted to authorize a strike by more than a 99% margin.
AFA says the new agreement would make Alaska the industry leader in pay. It includes immediate pay scale increases that average 24.3%. It also includes retroactive raises for work already performed — 3% for work in 2023, 6% for work through May 2024, and the full new wage rate since then. AFA says average raises total 32% over the three year contract. The agreement also spells out that flight attendants will be paid for the time when passengers are boarding, the first time a union carrier has agreed to do that.
