AFA wins
 

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA says it has won a union election at United Continental Holdings Inc.
United and Continental merged last year. The election was needed to decide which union would represent the combined flight attendant workforce.

The 15,000 flight attendants at United are already in the Association of Flight Attendants. That union now adds 9,200 flight attendants from Continental Airlines. They had previously been in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Vote totals were not immediately available.

AFA received 11,942 votes and 9745 votes were cast for the IAM.

And we think we have problems combining two ALPA groups....

No doubt.

That total indicates there was a large contingent at old UAL who voted for "change." Several old UAL FA's had indicated to me that there was an "undercurrent" wishing to go with the IAM because of greater resources and experience. The vote seems to indicate that.

Crew breaks will be somewhat more interesting over the coming weeks I would think !!!! My better half was one of those that "crossed" in favor of IAM shaking up the establishment....I called her in SYD and let her know the result....the response was not pretty !!! :D:D

Plus it was 3am !!! :)

Wonder if the UAL FA's didn't chop off their noses to spite their faces? CAL FA's tend to make a LOT more........at the 12 year point they are making around $53 an hour vs UAL's $33 (what I've been told). They also severely LIMITED the number of hours (and money) they can make by voting their own union back in. I think the UAL FA's were mislead into THINKING you HAD to fly 100+ hours a month...........which was totally wrong. The sad thing is I HOPE the CAL FA's aren't going to be drug down to UAL's pay and work rules, but sadly, that's probably what is going to happen. Management must be high fiving bigtime at this latest "VICTORY" for themselves. When will we ever learn? Someone must have really enjoyed the beatings at UAL. :(

EWRBAsed...:

You miss the reasoning here. If the CAL had won, because of the work rules, thousands of Jr. F/As (with 10 years) would have been furloughed.

Isn't CAL hiring 900+ FA's this fall and UAL is furloughing?

EWR73FO

In case you had your head in the sand CAL is hiring because of the "new " flying being done, while the UAL side is pulling down flying. Strange isn't it?

The work rules differences when ALL THE FLYING, CAL/UAL, is combined will mean furloughs under the CAL contract. Dude, this isn't about CAL verses UAL it is about one contract which is beneficial for the combined group!

Even the FA's know that giving away work rules is far harder to recoup than pay. Of course you might be one of those who likes working 100 hours a month (DH included) and have no life at home.

One airline, One Contract and One Pilot group!

12 year pay difference is $44.83 vs $38.30 which is $6.53
16 year pay difference is $52.53 vs $39.75 which is $12.78

The company was pushing for IAM all along, right up to last week when they tried to undermine the AFA win by announcing a flight attendant hiring program at CO.

CO produces approximately 15-18% more ASM's per flight attendant than UA. The IAM contract would have been a huge GET for management. Headcount is everything. 900 new hires for new flying is nothing compared to the almost 1500 they would have to hire if the CO FA's worked under the UA contract (just to cover existing CO flying).

I don't think the CO FA's are going to be "drug" down by anything. They need to negotiate a new joint contract just as we the pilots do. The "flight *hore" mentality has no friends at AFA, nor at UA ALPA. The vote for AFA was close because they feel the same disillusionment with AFA as we feel with ALPA. It's the "anything but ____" mentality.

BTW, CO produces about 12% more ASM's per pilot than UA. Some can be explained away by fleet and flying, but doesn't the company's proposal look a lot more like the CO contract than the UA contract?

AFA isn't what management wants. So good news? Right?

Seems pretty obvious to James. Hard to believe that so much of this crap has to be drawn out with big crayons.