United’s Flight Attendants to Request Raise

United Airlines flight attendants plan to ask for industry-leading wages in a meeting between union leaders and the carrier’s top executive this week. The demand is fallout from the big pay increases United granted pilots in a tentative contract settlement reached Aug. 26 after a chaotic summer of flight delays and thousands of cancellations. The flight attendants asked for the meeting with United Chief Executive Jim Goodwin to discuss renegotiating their 10-year contract reached in 1997, and other issues. Bobbie Pilkington of the United branch of the Assn. of Flight Attendants said the union will ask Goodwin for the pay increase, “given that the pilots just got a huge raise.” Pilots were given immediate pay raises of 21.5% to 28.5%, followed by four annual 4% pay hikes. The union has not specified how much money the flight attendants are seeking. United spokesman Joe Hopkins said, “We stand ready to listen to what they have to say.” The United flight attendants said they plan to make a major announcement Tuesday concerning the proposed merger of United Airlines and US Airways. United also still faces contract talks with its machinists union, now in federal mediation.