Where AFA-Represented Airline Negotiations Stand
AFA claims negotiations for a first contract would take as little as weeks or months to complete, yet its track record with workgroups significantly smaller than Delta’s shows otherwise. Just look at AFA-represented Avelo, Eastern, and Breeze:
- Avelo: In 2022, AFA was voted in by just eight flight attendants after it pushed to exclude dozens more from voting in the union election. Three years later, AFA and Avelo have only reached tentative agreements on 9 of 26 contract sections (as of March 2025), leaving key sections like compensation, scheduling, and benefits, still unresolved. With such little progress, some Avelo flight attendants are trying to remove AFA, which is extremely difficult to achieve.
- Eastern: In June 2022, AFA was certified to represent Eastern’s 45 flight attendants. Yet it wasn’t until February 2025 – almost three years later – that a contract was ratified.
- Breeze: In May 2024, flight attendants at Breeze elected AFA. But negotiations didn’t begin until November 2024 – 6 months later. As of March 2025, there are only three tentative agreements of 28 contract sections.
Negotiations for a first contract take time and start from a blank slate. Despite what AFA may promise, no one can predict how long it would take or what would be in the final agreement. And while flight attendants wait, there are typically no improvements to pay or work rules.
If it took three years for AFA to negotiate a contract at Eastern for only 45 flight attendants, how long would it take for 28,000 Delta flight attendants?
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