United Airlines flight attendants have been without a new contract for about two years, and on Thursday, they took their grievances to the picket lines at LAX.
It wasn't that long ago that the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), filed for federal mediation in the contract negotiations with United, and Kimberly Burckhalter, the local union president, told KNX News reporter Margaret Carrero, that the union is just looking for "what's right."
"United has made billions of record profits, and we're just saying, you know, do the right thing, share the wealth with us," said Burckhalter.
She says there are two groups of flight attendants: those that are senior and know what their schedules will be each month and those that are reserved, "They can be on call for a 24-hour period, which means the company can call them any time for a flight to do stand by here at the airport which they just sit here for four hours waiting for a flight."
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One attendant with more than eight years working for United said, "There is possibilities of making money, but you're then basically flying all the time, you're never going to be home. You're basically paying rent for an expensive storage unit, especially here in Los Angeles."
The flight attendants say they want better rest breaks for those flight attendants on reserve, reasonable work rules, as well as better pay and benefits.
In a statement sent to KNX News, United Airlines says they continue to make progress with the AFA and look forward to scheduling additional negotiations with the union and the federal mediator at LAX.
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