Thousands of flight attendants to hold nationwide pickets amid contract negotiations

Tens of thousands of flight attendants are expected to hold pickets at major airports on Tuesday in an effort to pressure carriers to enhance their compensation and working conditions. 

Dubbed the “Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action,” it marks the “largest collective action in the history of the profession,” according to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA). 

The pickets will be held in the U.K. and U.S., including Guam. In the U.S., there will be informational pickets at airports in more than 30 major cities, including Seattle, Houston and Boston.

UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANTS PICKET AT OVER A DOZEN AIRPORTS, DEMANDING BETTER OPERATIONS

The flight attendants who are slated to participate are part of unions representing more than 100,000 U.S. workers, according to the association.

The pickets are not expected to disrupt flights.

The effort comes at a time when more than two-thirds of U.S. flight attendants are in the midst of contract negotiations with employers, including American, Alaska, United, Southwest and Frontier Airlines.

The group argued it wants to “achieve the landmark contracts that reflect the profits our work creates,” according to the APFA.  

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TO PICKET OVER CONTRACT DISPUTES

The workers are seeking better pay, retirement security and schedule flexibility. 

“Legacy sexism that traditionally devalued our jobs must be stamped out and replaced with the true value of our work,” the APFA said. “Like every other worker around the world, we need to go to work to live, not just live to work.” 

The group continued, saying that this is a “war on corporate greed.” 

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In recent years, flight attendants have been pushing for better contracts while pilots simultaneously took up their own fight with carriers. Flight attendants have also fought for carriers to fix operational issues that they say have affected their jobs.  

In November 2022, American Airlines flight attendants picketed at nearly a dozen bases nationwide over issues with contract negotiations. 

A few months before that, United Airlines flight attendants took part in a picket, dubbed the “Day of Action,” at 14 airports in the U.S., Guam and London, demanding that the carrier fix ongoing operational disruptions that they say have “tangibly impacted them” and their passengers.  

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), the union representing the picketing flight attendants, had claimed United’s management failed, in part, to properly staff crew schedules, which had “exacerbated these operational issues and left passengers and Flight Attendants waiting for answers for hours at a time.”

Airlines for America, the trade association representing major U.S. air carriers, did not respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.