Unions Gain In United Settlement

Flight attendants at United Airlines have approved a new contract that would provide raises of 18% to 31% and also participation in a profit sharing plan. The new 5 year contract was approved by a slim 53% of the union. In addition, United also announced an agreement with the airline’s mechanics, although the specific contract details have yet to be released. This is undoubtedly good news for United as these contracts finally bring the Continental workers acquired in the merger under one contract with United. The separate contracts for United and former Continental workers had created chaos at the airline for the last couple of years, resulting in some of the worst ratings in the industry. But the high level of raises for the flight attendants has to be a big win for the union and really shows how poorly the airlines had paid those employees for so long. And we will see whether the mechanics get a similar result when the details of the new contract are released.