AFA Regional Airline Leaders Come Together to End Tiers in Aviation
September 27, 2024 — AFA Leaders from regional airlines gathered for two days of strategizing and Solidarity earlier this week in Washington, D.C. Regional Flight Attendants fly the same routes and do the same work as all Flight Attendants. But their pay is closing in on half as much and their work has been moved from smaller town airport to major hubs.
The regional airline business model benefits executives and shareholders at Delta, United, American, and Alaska by keeping pay and benefits for Flight Attendants and other workers in poverty levels. Management works to pit workers against each other to hide the fact that they’re the ones keeping wages low.
The Regional Bargaining Summit brought us together to raise the standards for Regional Flight Attendants and our careers as a whole. As long as one Flight Attendant is undervalued, we’re all — mainline, regional, niche, charter — at risk.
Management can’t continue their race to the bottom at our expense. We’re ready to bring this fight to the real decision makers Delta, United, American, and Alaska. And we’re ready to use the right to strike to reject the idea that regional contracts should be compared to other regional contracts rather than Flight Attendant contracts across the industry.
The fight is coming up fast at Air Wisconsin and PSA where Flight Attendants turned out 99% strike votes, but Mesa and GoJet are not far behind. And Endeavor Flight Attendants have been leading on defining the problem through their Delta Disparity Difference campaign (next picketing Oct 3rd in Atlanta). The fact is that the bargaining at one airline matters to all of us and we’re coordinating our demands and our fight to use our collective power for change.
The Summit culminated in a powerful display of Solidarity, when Flight Attendants representing nine airlines picketed outside the Regional Airline Association (RAA) conference. Regional airline management facilitates the cruel model perpetuated by major airlines as they pit the regionals against each other to drive the lowest fees for flights operated, on the same routes, and with the same passengers buying tickets through the major airlines. Just as RAA conference attendees came together, we came together to show them we won’t be divided in the fight to end tiers in aviation.
They heard us loud and clear. Watch the video recap.
