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Apparent Agreement Between Frontier Airlines & Flight Attendants Appears To Resolve Unrest


In recent months, flight attendants working for Frontier Airlines had started to make known their dissatisfaction with their rate of pay and the prolonged delay in ongoing contract discussions with their employer.  

There is quite a bit to unpack here, so let us start at the beginning and work forward from there.  Flight attendants at Frontier have a history of being among the lowest paid in the industry, with flight attendants working at Frontier for a year or less making a base rate of $19.25/flight hour.  In contrast, flight attendants working at Alaskan Airlines that have worked for a year or less earn a base rate of $21.31 - $22.38/flight hour.  Flight attendants at Southwest Airlines that have worked for a year or less earn a base rate of $22.36 - $22.64/flight hour.  Flight attendants at American Airlines that have worked for a year or less earn a base rate of $24.18/flight hour.  Flight attendants at Hawaiian Airlines that have worked for a year or less earn a base rate of $24.50 - $25.26/flight hour.  (Of note, flight hours commence once the plane door is closed.  Generally speaking, flight attendants are often paid only for flight hours.  Time spent packing for trips, getting to the airport, etc. does not count as flight hours.)  In the industry, anywhere from 80 - 85 flight hours per month is considered a full time schedule.  However, some flight attendants at Frontier are guaranteed only 75 flight hours each month.  Perhaps most concerning for Frontier flight attendants is the fact that the most senior flight attendants only make $33,489.00 per year.  In comparison, senior flight attendants at Spirit Airlines can make up to $43,380.00 per year.  As a result of this low pay, many Frontier flight attendants have taken to working overtime, taking other jobs to supplement their income, living with family or friends to save money, and scraping to get by each month.

Now as for the contract negotiations with Frontier, the flight attendants had a union representing them in those negotiations. That union, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, had been in negotiations with Frontier since the last contract expired in 2016.  (That contract had been in place since 2011, not longer after Frontier filed for bankruptcy and had subsequently changed hands over the past several years.). In principle, Frontier flight attendants wanted a new contract to include a pay raise.  With many Frontier flight attendants getting antsy about the delayed negotiations, in November of 2018, 99% of the union’s members voted to authorize a strike if negotiations continued to stall.  In fact, the union’s international president, Sara Nelson, announced earlier this month that if a new contract with Frontier was not agreed upon by March 20th, the union would demonstrate at Frontier’s headquarters in Denver.

Frontier does have a somewhat tenuous history in recent years with its employees.  In 2016, four Frontier pilots filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the grounds that the company did not provide them with an area to pump breast milk.  A lawsuit followed in 2017 when two Frontier pilots sued the airline claiming they had been improperly required to take unpaid leave in order to breastfeed.

With that being said, despite the prolonged delay in contract negotiations, word leaked out last week that a new contract had been agreed upon by the parties.  While Frontier has not commented on the status of any new contract, the flight attendants’ union stated that the new contract included a pay raise, schedule flexibility, quality of life improvements, and other benefits.  The entire scope of exactly what the flight attendants achieved with this apparent new contract remains to be officially announced, but from the initial reports, it appears they achieved a great deal here.  It will be interesting to see where this apparent pay raise places Frontier flight attendants with others in the industry.


For information concerning the initial stalemate in contract discussions:  http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/frontier-airlines-flight-attendants-protest.html

For additional information concerning the reported new contract:  https://www.marketwatch.com/story/frontier-airlines-flight-attendants-reach-tentative-contract-2019-03-20

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