Not really the same thing: There are no involuntary FA furloughs at UA. The furloughees are, in some cases, very senior flight attendants. AFA wants to protect the seniority rights of their members. Perfectly appropriate and we would accept nothing less. AFA also said that there is time to work out a JCBA and make this a moot subject. Also correct. If this were an involuntary furlough of the most junior FA's, I'm sure AFA's stance would be different.

There's a whole lot of skullduggery here that needs to be considered: This subject was broached prematurely by management to disadvantage AFA in the election. And then they tried to manipulate the election results by announcing an FA new hire program less than a week before the polls closed. They couldn't wait a week?