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Dozens of United Airlines flight attendants plan to picket LAX on Tuesday, September 27, citing shortages of staff schedulers, caterers and other service providers.
The workers, represented by the Airline Attendants Association (AFA-CWA), said the lack of staff at the company has had a significant impact on travelers, with 67,485 flight delays and 6,780 cancellations since May.
Kimberly Burkhalter, a United flight attendant for 29 years and president of AFA Council 12 at LAX, said: “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has not fired enough people when they furloughed or laid off employees.
Scheduling takes a long time to learn.
Burckhalter said there is a phone number flight attendants can call to get updates on scheduling, but they often spend four hours or more trying to reach someone on the other end. The wait is long, she said, and sometimes they eat during the required 10-hour break between shifts.
“We call not only for our flights but also for information about the hotels we are staying at,” she said. “We’re just closed for hours because they don’t have enough people to answer the phones.”
Working to fix the problem
United said in a statement on Monday that it is working to address the problem.
“We’ve worked hard to reduce wait times for flight attendants to talk to a team of schedulers, including hiring more and adding digital options for some items,” the airline said.
The flight attendants’ contract expires in August 2021, although they are in labor negotiations and are still working through a contract amendment that would preserve the same benefits.
The union said the shortfall was exacerbated last week after United’s management canceled a day for not performing a mandatory inspection on some Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
Management continues to deny responsibility for delays and cancellations, the union said, instead blaming others, including air traffic control, flight attendants and pilots.
“This is one of the worst seasons I’ve had in my 29 years at United,” Burckhalter said. “I get phone calls from my associates here in LA, because they’re trying to clock out or clock in.”
United flight attendants on Tuesday are demanding that the administration fix the disruptions it has caused to them and the traveling public out of 15 airports across the U.S. and in Guam and London.
The LAX protest is planned for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the upper departure level of Terminal 7.
“We’re tired and we need the company’s help,” Burckhalter said. “We need management to come up with a solution to this situation. We’re already through summer and now it’s the holiday season, so it’s going to start all over again.”
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