Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Say Long-Haul Service Is Too Much Work — Demand More Crew Or Cut Service

The Alaska Airlines flight attendants union is demanding more staffing on long haul flights – or insisting that the airline cut back on the product. Alaska’s service is, apparently, too good and the union is grieving it. If management expects a certain level of service, it must provide the staffing necessary to deliver it. They face a clear choice: increase staffing to meet their service goals, or work with our Inflight Service Committee to establish realistic service standards that actually reflect the staffing provided. Until they choose one, we will not accept being set up for failure. The union’s argument doesn’t actually seem that strong that they need more staffing. Hawaiian Airlines operated these Boeing 787-9s. Their flight attendants are also AFA-represented. And Alaska’s staffing is actually slightly more generous than Hawaiian’s was – both carriers default to 9, 10 at Alaska with an 85% revenue load (Hawaiian was 10 at 90%). Alaska is following the contract on staffing levels, and the union doesn’t dispute that. AFA complained in May that while Alaska’s service was based on the Hawaiian model for the initial Seattle-Seoul flight, management then made the service better. So the complaint is about having to do more work while on duty. For instance, Alaska added differentiated extra legroom ‘premium class’ service It added elite recognition, more beverage choices, alcohol sales, ice cream and warm cookies. The argument the union makes in its grievance is that Section 29.I.4 of their contract requires management and AFA to negotiate and agree upon 787 inflight-service requirements. AFA argues Alaska added work without securing that agreement. So its current demand to add crew or simplify service can really be read as an effort to force the airline into negotiation. Their view is that they can extract a tax from the airline in exchange for the service the carrier wants to offer on long haul flights. Topics on this page