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 our bases, Flight Attendants have been speaking up about what really matters on the job. These aren’t just complaints or wish lists – they’re the priorities we’ve identified as essential for creating a better future for all of us.

When we vote for our union, we’ll choose our own negotiating committee – SkyWest Flight Attendants who do this job every day and understand what we’re dealing with. They’ll bring these priorities to the table when negotiating our first contract. And here’s the thing: management is legally required to negotiate with us when we have our union.

It’s not optional. They don’t decide what gets addressed – we do.

Here’s what our survey showed:

✅ Pay that reflects our value and sacrifices – Over 85% of Flight Attendants listed pay increases as a top priority, with many calling for significant increases to match the work we do – work that is identical to mainline Flight Attendants and often much more intensive.

✅ Stronger work rules and trip protections – Nearly 70% said we need enforceable rules to end constant fatigue, prevent excessive duty days, and ensure fair treatment.

✅ Better reserve quality of life – About 65% talked about short call-out times, unpredictable assignments, and the inability to plan life outside of work as major issues.

✅ More schedule flexibility – Over 50% want the freedom to drop or adjust trips without risking discipline or lost income.

✅ Safe, quality hotels and layover protections – More than 40% raised concerns about layover hotel safety, cleanliness, and lack of guaranteed rest.

✅ Pay for all the time we spend at work – Many Flight Attendants emphasized the need for fair compensation for time spent at the airport outside of flight hours, including sits and boarding duties.

✅ A fair commuter policy – A substantial number of Flight Attendants highlighted the need for a real commuter policy that protects them when unforeseen travel disruptions happen, instead of leaving them to be punished or stranded.

Right now, decisions about these issues are made by management, for management. For example, they rolled out boarding pay during our organizing campaign to try to undermine our efforts for a union contract that would make real gains permanent and enforceable. But without a contract, any pay policy can disappear at any time, and management keeps control over how – and if – it continues.

And it’s not just boarding pay. Anything management gives can be taken back just as easily. They quietly change policies behind the scenes or simply ignore the ones they no longer want to follow. Right now, we have no legal way to make them keep their promises.

Company policies (FAPM) are written to protect management’s interests, not ours. With our union and a contract, we’ll finally have enforceable rights that management can’t just change on a whim. We’ll have a real way to hold them accountable to what’s agreed upon and to build on what we have now to secure what we really deserve.

Think about it: They always find the money to protect their power and silence Flight Attendants, but when we ask for fair pay, humane schedules, or basic safety, suddenly “the budget is tight.”

Where are their priorities?

Here’s the bigger picture: Every day, we deliver a seamless, professional product to passengers, many of whom don’t even realize they’re on a regional airline. But despite doing the same safety-critical work, we’re paid far less than our peers at the mainlines. There is no reason for that.

The only way it changes is when we have a seat at the table. When we – the largest group of regional Flight Attendants in the country – stand together, we can finally raise the bar for everyone.

We’re also constantly adapting to different mainline partners, sometimes within the same trip. Management has “optimized” our flexibility to maximize their profits – yet we don’t see any of those rewards. That has to change.

Imagine:

• Trip and duty rigs that guarantee fair pay for every minute we work

• Minimum rest and hotel standards locked in a contract

• Real control over our schedules and quality of life

• Raises and protections we vote on ourselves

• The power to enforce what’s agreed upon

• Finally ending airline management’s tiered pay scheme so our compensation reflects the safety-critical work we do, because there’s no reason we should be paid far less than our peers at mainline airlines

These are the changes we’re ready to fight for together.

Our union will be run by Flight Attendants, for Flight Attendants. And it won’t stop here – we’ll keep listening, surveying, and gathering feedback so our priorities always reflect what’s most important to us.

With AFA-CWA, we’ll finally have the legal power and collective strength to make these changes a reality.

Let’s keep talking about what matters. Have these conversations with your fellow crewmembers today.

Sign your AFA card and join us in building our union and a contract that will transform our futures.