SkyWest flight attendants claim retaliatory firings amid fight to unionize
Flight attendants at the largest regional airline in the US, SkyWest, are seeking to unionize the airline, taking on what they claim is an illegal company union and pushing back on alleged retaliatory firings of two flight attendants who were leaders of an organizing campaign. Flight attendants at SkyWest, which operates flights for Delta, United, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, are currently represented by the SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA), a work group that does not purport to be a union and is supported and funded by the airline itself, according to a handbook for SIA representatives. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) is seeking to unionize over 4,000 flight attendants at the airline and has accused the SkyWest of fostering a well-known anti-union culture which it says “includes illegal ‘in-house’ company unions”. On 13 September, two flight attendants at SkyWest Airlines were fired, which the union has alleged is retaliation for their public leadership roles in the union organizing campaign and is demanding their reinstatement. Tresa Grange worked as a flight attendant at SkyWest for 24 years before she was recently terminated along with Shane Price, a flight attendant at the airline for about nine years. Grange said about two years ago she reached out to the AFA-CWA to start getting a union organizing drive started, in part due to her experience as a representative for the SkyWest Inflight Association and her experience in management. “SkyWest Inflight Association is run as an extension of inflight management and that is why I am passionately after a legally recognized contract through a union,” said Grange. “They can bend and break and twist and utilize a policy or procedure in any way that supports or helps the company, however, the flight attendants cannot.” Price said the union opposition from SkyWest has ramped up this year as the union organizing started gaining momentum and flight attendants began wearing pins and putting union pins on their luggage. SkyWest cites the existence of SIA as to why its workers don’t need a union. But Price and their supporters don’t buy that.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-10-03/unaligned/skywest-flight-attendants-claim-retaliatory-firings-amid-fight-to-unionize
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SkyWest flight attendants claim retaliatory firings amid fight to unionize
Flight attendants at the largest regional airline in the US, SkyWest, are seeking to unionize the airline, taking on what they claim is an illegal company union and pushing back on alleged retaliatory firings of two flight attendants who were leaders of an organizing campaign. Flight attendants at SkyWest, which operates flights for Delta, United, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, are currently represented by the SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA), a work group that does not purport to be a union and is supported and funded by the airline itself, according to a handbook for SIA representatives. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) is seeking to unionize over 4,000 flight attendants at the airline and has accused the SkyWest of fostering a well-known anti-union culture which it says “includes illegal ‘in-house’ company unions”. On 13 September, two flight attendants at SkyWest Airlines were fired, which the union has alleged is retaliation for their public leadership roles in the union organizing campaign and is demanding their reinstatement. Tresa Grange worked as a flight attendant at SkyWest for 24 years before she was recently terminated along with Shane Price, a flight attendant at the airline for about nine years. Grange said about two years ago she reached out to the AFA-CWA to start getting a union organizing drive started, in part due to her experience as a representative for the SkyWest Inflight Association and her experience in management. “SkyWest Inflight Association is run as an extension of inflight management and that is why I am passionately after a legally recognized contract through a union,” said Grange. “They can bend and break and twist and utilize a policy or procedure in any way that supports or helps the company, however, the flight attendants cannot.” Price said the union opposition from SkyWest has ramped up this year as the union organizing started gaining momentum and flight attendants began wearing pins and putting union pins on their luggage. SkyWest cites the existence of SIA as to why its workers don’t need a union. But Price and their supporters don’t buy that.<br/>
