United’s Negotiations with AFA
In a recent communication to Flight Attendants, AFA stated that United management, "show[s] their disregard for basic human needs by submitting proposals such as eliminating the requirement for food at layover hotels." This statement is untrue and requires a correction.
Our competitors have an advantage over United in the area of hotel costs and domestic crew meals. On July 21, in an effort to become more competitive, and to balance the interests and needs of our Flight Attendants, United negotiators proposed savings in the areas of hotels and crew meals as well as an increase in per diem. The most significant and relevant terms of that proposal were:
- An increase in per diem from $1.50 per hour to $1.60.
- If a Flight Attendant releases a layover hotel room far enough in advance so that United saves the full cost of that room, United will pay the Flight Attendant $20 per released room per night.
- Instead of a 24-hr. in-house hotel kitchen and restaurant, meals at layover hotels will be available from an on-site restaurant or via delivery by one or more outside restaurants from: 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. By allowing outside restaurants to deliver meals, United would be better positioned to consider bids from quality and respected hotels that happen to not operate around-the-clock kitchens and restaurants.
- United can use field hotels instead of downtown/downtown-like hotels on layovers up to 32 hours.
- No requirement to provide crew meals on domestic flight segments, except for charters if meals are provided to passengers. (Delta, American, Southwest, Continental, Alaska, JetBlue, and AirTran are not required to provide crew meals on domestic segments).
When we made this proposal, our negotiators emphasized that this was not a final offer, and that it was intended to jump-start bargaining on these topics. As we have said since the beginning of the negotiations, we welcome reasonable counter-proposals. On July 22, the AFA negotiators rejected this Company proposal in its entirety, and the "counter-proposal" simply re-asserted AFA’s April 6, 2009 opening positions.