Good questions. Straight answers.
Everything SkyWest Flight Attendants ask us most, answered in one place. If your question isn't here, send it to us and we'll answer it.
?Why do we need a union when we already have SIA?Because SIA answers to SkyWest. Our union answers to us.+
SkyWest Flight Attendants will run our union for SkyWest Flight Attendants. The leaders we choose answer to us, not management. With a contract, we lock in what we like about our jobs and improve what should be better, and we gain the protections unionized workers have, starting with a grievance process that resolves disputes over work rule violations, unfair discipline and wrongful terminations.
Funded and controlled by SkyWest. That conflict of interest lets management use it for its own agenda. Coworkers who tried to make change through SIA found it built to put management's interests first.
We set the priorities. Management is legally obligated to meet our leaders and bargain in good faith. Disputes go through a clear, legally binding process.
- Job security. Pay, benefits and conditions are defined in a contract management cannot change on its own.
- Better pay and benefits. Negotiating together secures more than any of us can alone.
- Democratic decisions. We vote on contracts, elect our leaders and set our priorities.
- Legal protection. Representation when you face discipline or termination.
- Power of unity. A larger community of Flight Attendants who have each other's backs.
Management spends millions on union-avoidance consultants because it does not want us to have independent power at work.
$Doesn't a union only want our dues?Zero dues until we approve our first contract.+
FACTThere are zero dues until after we approve our first contract. We pay nothing during negotiations.
100% of dues go to representing Flight Attendants: lifting our voices for safety, respect and dignity on the job, and a contract that defines our pay, benefits and work rules.
- Value for money. We would only approve a contract whose gains far exceed the cost of dues, which are $65 per month.
- Direct benefits. Roughly 80% of dues fund work at each airline: Local Councils, Master Executive Councils, Negotiations and System Board.
- Expert services. The rest supports Legal, Government Affairs, Air Safety, EAP, IT and Communications.
PDoes AFA use our dues for politics?No. Dues fund representation. FlightPAC is separate and voluntary.+
FACTDues pay for the work of representing us: negotiations, contract enforcement, grievances and legal defense.
Paid by every member, starting after we approve our first contract. They fund representation.
Funded only by members who choose to give. It supports candidates in any party who stand up for Flight Attendants.
Federal law bars unions from giving treasury money to federal candidates, so those contributions have to come from a voluntary fund. For AFA, that fund is FlightPAC.
AWhy AFA and not another union?We did our homework. AFA is the Flight Attendant union.+
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA represents more than 50,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines. It is the most specialized union for our profession, so its resources, strategy and advocacy are built around the work we actually do.
- Pandemic paychecks. AFA designed the Payroll Support Program and pushed it through Congress, keeping Flight Attendants employed and paid while air travel collapsed.
- FMLA eligibility. AFA won the fix that converts Flight Attendant schedules to FMLA's minimums, so we can take leave without fear of losing our jobs.
- Rest and duty time. AFA lobbied for the rest protections that now combat fatigue across the industry.
- Safety regulations. Better emergency procedures, protective equipment and training.
- Recent contracts. Significant pay raises and stronger protections at several airlines, plus pushes on mental health resources and on ending harassment.
Across its history AFA has won job protections, fair compensation and work-life balance that many of us now take for granted.
+What can a union give us that we don't already have?A contract management cannot change on its own.+
- Job security. A contract locks in our current benefits and gives us a platform to improve working conditions. Management cannot change our terms unilaterally.
- Bargaining on our priorities. We negotiate for what SkyWest Flight Attendants need, not what another workgroup needed.
- Strength in numbers. We join more than 50,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines and 700,000 members of CWA.
★What are some of AFA's successes?Tailored contracts, and the law that kept SkyWest paychecks flowing.+
- Tailored contracts. Every AFA-represented carrier has its own contract. Changes are approved by Flight Attendants through Tentative Agreements before they become enforceable.
- Legislative wins. AFA played the principal role in establishing the Payroll Support Program, securing billions to keep Flight Attendants on payroll during the pandemic. SkyWest received hundreds of millions of dollars because of AFA's legislative work.
!Why doesn't the company want us to have a union?Because right now, every decision is theirs alone.+
SkyWest holds sole authority over decisions affecting our jobs, and often puts profit ahead of our interests. Without a union we have no formal platform to advocate for ourselves.
A collective voice and legal standing to negotiate and protect our rights, through representatives we choose, who listen to us and stand up to management on our behalf.
TWhy do contract negotiations take so long?Because management doesn't want to give up control.+
Management points to long negotiations elsewhere to paint union representation as endless delay. Stalling is not a sign unions are ineffective. It is management's only move once workers are organized, and at unionized carriers that strategy is wearing thin. What they fear is what a real union gives us: a legal seat at the table, binding agreements and the power to stand up for ourselves.
IHow do unions help with IROPS?Contracts are the key.+
Delays, cancellations and reassignments upend Flight Attendants' lives. Contracts at AFA-represented carriers such as Alaska, United, Envoy and PSA spell out what Flight Attendants are owed during disruptions, and those provisions are enforceable, not discretionary.
Tap a card. Flip the story.
Three things you may have heard, and what's actually true.
Where dues go.
Every dollar funds Flight Attendant representation. Here is the split.
during the entire negotiation of our first contract.
Longer answers, written by SkyWest Flight Attendants.
What dues cost, why the rate changed this year, and why SkyWest Flight Attendants pay nothing until our first contract.
Read → Does AFA use our dues for politics?Where dues go, how FlightPAC works, and how the two are kept apart.
Read → How do unions help with IROPS?What contracts at Alaska, United, Envoy and PSA guarantee when the operation falls apart.
Read → Why do contract negotiations take so long?The delay tactic, who uses it, and why it is wearing thin.
Read → How does AFA hold elections differently than SIA?Transparent, democratic elections under AFA's Constitution and Bylaws, compared with a company-controlled association.
Read → What are some recent AFA successes?Raises, bonuses and commuter improvements at AFA-represented regionals, and more.
Read →Ask it. We'll answer it.
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