Spirit Flight Attendants Ratify New Contract
April 14, 2023 - Spirit AFA Flight Attendants this week voted to ratify a new contract. The contract increases base wages 10-27% immediately for 6,000 Flight Attendants, with most seeing in excess of a 40% pay increase in under 2 years. The contract is two years and eight months.
“This contract will make an immediate difference in Spirit Flight Attendants’ lives,” said Jason Kachenmeister, AFA Spirit President. “While we navigate the proposed merger, Spirit Flight Attendants have locked in three raises, additional pay factor improvements, better rest on layovers, all while maintaining our healthcare insurance with no premium increases. We also achieved significant scheduling protections and additional pay when irregular operations cause cancellations or delays.”
The new scheduling protections will help Spirit Flight Attendants on days like Wednesday as FLL flooded due to torrential rain.
This contract was reached through regular negotiations under Section 6 of the Railway Labor Act. The contract was ratified with 75% voting for the agreement.
Congratulations to Spirit Flight Attendants!
Here’s just a few of the additional contractual improvements in the new contract:
- Short Term deal: 2 years and eight months set up Flight Attendants whether the merger occurs or not. Either way, we get improvements now and then, another bite at the apple, either through merger contract negotiations or another independent contract.
- Separated: Reroute and Reschedule. A FA rescheduled (cancellation, delays, misconnect) now gets 150% of additional credit and must return to base w/in 2 hours of the original footprint – both provisions are new. A FA rerouted (nothing happens to the original pairing) would now receive 150% of additional credit.
- Day Off Restoration (DOR) chosen by FA. No more negotiations with the crew scheduler. We will now have set criteria for selecting the day.
- Minimum 8 hours in-hotel rest from key-in-hand to hotel van. If a room is unavailable, report time is delayed, providing a minimum of 8 hours rest.
- Additional day off for Reserves in 31-day bid months. Reserves get five extra days off a year.
- Lead Pay increased to $2.50.
- Deadheading FA cannot be “stood up” to work if a ready reserve is available.
- Commuter Policy occurrences doubled to 4 times. The need to register at a specific airport is eliminated. Recovery options for crew schedulers to connect commuting FA to trips established. Commuters who arrive late but before departure time can keep their pairing.
