Alaska Airlines flight attendants authorize strike, but nothing planned

Flight attendants with Alaska Airlines have voted to authorize a strike for the first time in more than 30 years.

News of the vote emerged as more than 60 flight attendants protested for better pay outside the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Feb. 13.

The vote does not mean a strike will occur. But the decision raises the stakes in an effort by the attendants to negotiate what they say is their first new contract in a decade. They say Alaska Airlines has awarded large pay increases to pilots but does not provide a livable wage to some of its flight attendants.

The negotiations have dragged on for more than a year, and flight attendants have held multiple protests outside the Anchorage airport and other airports nationally.

Alaska Air flight attendants on Feb. 13 picketed outside 30 airports in three countries, said Rebecca Owens, spokesperson for the Local Council 30 in Anchorage for the Association of Flight Attendants.

Alaska Airlines said in a statement on Feb. 13 it is making progress in the negotiations.

“We remain optimistic in the negotiations process,” the company said. “With six recently closed labor deals at the company and a tentative agreement reached in January for a new contract for our technicians, we’re hopeful to do the same for our flight attendants as soon as possible.”

Alaska Air is making a profit and has offered $1.9 billion to acquire Hawaiian Airlines, Owens said. But it hasn’t offered reasonable pay increases to flight attendants, she said. Many flight attendants receive poverty-level wages, forcing some to rely on their partner’s or spouse’s incomes for financial stability, she said.

First-year flight attendants at the airline make an average base pay of less than $24,000 annually, union officials have said.

More than 5,900 flight attendants at the airline voted 99% in favor of a strike, Owens said. The union had said ballots would be sent to 6,800 flight attendants.

Before a strike can occur, the National Mediation Board must declare that negotiations are deadlocked, placing both parties in a 30-day “cooling off” period leading to a strike deadline, the union has said.

The last time Alaska Air flight attendants went on strike was in 1993, the union said in a statement.