AFA officers retaliate against United flight attendant
AFA says it advocates for all flight attendants – but at United, that wasn’t the case. Recently nine flight attendants and two AFA officers were terminated after an investigation uncovered their role in retaliating against a flight attendant who reported peers to management for safety concerns.
What Happened?
In 2020, a United flight attendant (“Flight Attendant A”) raised safety concerns to management related to mask policy violations by two other flight attendants (“Flight Attendants B and C”). After an investigation, United issued disciplinary “performance warnings” to Flight Attendants B and C.
Two officers for AFA Local Executive Council 21 (DCA/IAD/BWI) – the President and the Grievance Chair – defended Flight Attendants B and C. Instead of focusing on the underlying safety issue, they focused on collecting and providing United management with multiple statements from other flight attendants raising false, unrelated complaints against Flight Attendant A:
One of the union officers called Flight Attendant A “condescending and sneaky.”
The other officer (interestingly) said that “she would never support flight attendants reporting other flight attendants’ alleged violation of Company policies to United.”
United found evidence that AFA had submitted against Flight Attendant A to be “completely false.” Nine flight attendants were then terminated for submitting false reports and engaging in other related misconduct, including statements about “making life miserable” for the “snitch”.
United also launched an investigation into whether the two union officers retaliated against Flight Attendant A. The two union officers refused to participate in the investigation and were ultimately terminated.
AFA’s Response
Rather than addressing the conduct of its officers, AFA filed a lawsuit to prohibit United from investigating their actions against Flight Attendant A. AFA argued that United’s investigation was in violation of federal law by attempting “to undermine AFA’s role as representative and to chill union activity.”
A judge reviewed AFA’s claim and dismissed their case, stating:
“…the union’s position would permit union representatives to retaliate against flight attendants who take disfavored actions and coordinate that retaliation while representing other flight attendants being investigated for the same retaliation. The RLA does not provide for that kind of ‘cloak of immunity’ for the misconduct of . . . employees functioning in a representative capacity.”
AFA has appealed the decision, but the appeal is on hold while both United and AFA are in arbitration for their grievances. Meanwhile, the two union officers have continued in their roles with the AFA Local Executive Council.
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*By texting the keyword above, you are agreeing to receive periodic SMS text messages from Delta Air Lines regarding One Future. One Delta. Standard messaging and data rates may apply. You may unsubscribe any time by texting “STOP” and the keyword above to +1 205 846 8096. Full Terms.