Report: What SkyWest Flight Attendants Really Want

These Are Our Priorities – And With Our Union, We’ll Finally Have the Power to Make Them Happen

Across SkyWest, Flight Attendants have spoken — loudly and clearly. This isn’t random griping; it’s a focused list of our priorities built from hundreds of voices across all our bases. These are the changes we’re ready to win when we form our union and negotiate a legally binding contract.

SkyWest Flight Attendants subscribed to the SkyWest AFA email list received several invitations and reminders to complete the survey and share their priorities. This was just one of many opportunities Flight Attendants will have to directly shape our collective priorities, with many more surveys, discussions, and votes to come, because our union is driven by us. The latest survey was open for nearly a year (10 months), ensuring every Flight Attendant who wanted their voice heard had multiple chances to participate.

Right now, management decides everything, from pay to schedules to benefits. With our union, we’ll elect Flight Attendants from our own ranks to lead negotiations, backed by AFA-CWA’s legal power and industry experience.

Once we have our union, management is required by law to bargain in good faith — on the issues we care about, not just what they want to discuss.

Here’s what SkyWest Flight Attendants are demanding:

✅ Pay that reflects the job we do

📊 93% of survey respondents demanded immediate pay raises, with the overwhelming majority asking for at least $5-$15/hour increases across the board or pay aligned with the highest-paid airlines. Many Flight Attendants said:

“We are done being paid second-rate wages while doing first-rate work,” and “Our pay should match the value we bring to the company.”

✅ Stop working for free

📊 88% called for immediate fixes to unpaid time issues, including locking in boarding pay, airport sit pay, and pay for every minute on duty.

“We’re the only people in the airport working for free. That ends with a contract.”
“Trip and duty rigs, no more free sits, and no more stolen time.”

✅ Real schedule control

📊 72% listed schedule flexibility as a top demand, saying:

“Stop the no-drop zones,”
“Fix PBS so it actually works for us,” and
“Let us manage our own schedules without punishment.”

✅ Fix the broken reserve system

📊 70% said reserve is the most abusive part of our job, with demands to end breaking guarantee, longer call-out times, and minimum day guarantees on reserve.

“You shouldn’t have to spend all day trapped by a phone just to be abused after sitting unpaid for hours.”

✅ Commuter protections that actually work

📊 57% said commuter stress is destroying quality of life, calling for:

“Positive space rights,”
“Company-paid hotels when stranded,” and
“No more commuter punishments for travel issues we can’t control.”

✅ Respectable hotels, rest, and safety

📊 48% said layover hotels are a disaster, with demands for contractually guaranteed safe, clean, quiet hotels and better rest protections.

“Our safety and rest shouldn’t be treated like an afterthought.”

✅ Real benefits, not overpriced junk coverage

📊 46% cited bad insurance and weak retirement options, saying:

“Our benefits are expensive and useless,”
“We need real healthcare, and retirement pay matching like the rest of the industry.”

✅ Enforceable rights to stop management’s abuse of power

📊 95% said we need a contract with legal protections, with many adding:

“We want a contract that they can’t just change when it’s convenient,” and
“It’s time we have enforceable rights, not just policies written by corporate.”

SkyWest Flight Attendants are also fed up with SIA’s inadequicies

Multiple Flight Attendants said:

“SIA protects the company, not us,”
“I’ve never seen SIA fix anything,” and
“They exist to keep us quiet, not to represent us.”

📊 87% said SIA is ineffective or worse, with many noting:

“SIA is management’s tool to block our voice,” and
“They have no legal authority to negotiate binding contracts.”

That’s the truth:

- SIA is company-funded and controlled.
- SIA has no legal rights to enforce agreements, fight discipline, or guarantee pay.
- With AFA-CWA, we gain legal power to negotiate and enforce a contract.

With AFA-CWA, We Will Finally Have Real Power:

✅ Real pay increases we vote on
✅ Guaranteed pay for sits, holds, and every minute at work
✅ Fair scheduling with flexibility and transparency
✅ A reformed reserve system that respects our time
✅ A commuter policy that recognizes real life happens
✅ Quality rest and hotel standards that can’t be stripped away
✅ Affordable, effective benefits and retirement protections
✅ A legally enforceable contract to hold management accountable

SkyWest management finds money for stock sales, bonuses, and PR stunts — but not for Flight Attendants.

📊 While we face stagnating wages, SkyWest executives have sold off millions in stock just this year.
📊 All recent insider stock activity has been sales—zero purchases—while we work longer days for less.

The Solution is Solidarity!

📝 Every Flight Attendant who signed their AFA card said it best:

“We’re done begging. We’re ready to bargain.”

We will win the contract we deserve — not because management wakes up generous, but because we stand together.

✅ Talk to coworkers. ✅ Sign your AFA card. ✅ Vote for your future.
SkyWest Flight Attendants are ready. Let’s finish this.