CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Members of the union that represents United Airlines pilots have voted down a tentative contract agreement, which was announced in June.
The move by union pilots came on the heels of a strike authorization vote by pilots at Delta Airlines.
Longtime airline industry observer Ken Goldstein, of KJG International Consulting, said the airline labor unions want their collective bargaining agreements to meet the sunny rhetoric in airline news releases.
“We’re getting past the problems that we had over the summer with cancellations, short crews and everything else, and the pilots, overall, are starting to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we want part of that pie,’” Goldstein said.
The tentative agreement with United pilots included cumulative pay raises of 14.5%, along with enhanced overtime and training pay.
Goldstein said the pilots’ union is waging a public relations campaign because the law makes a work stoppage very difficult.
“The fortunate thing for the traveling public is the airline pilots can’t just say, “OK, we’re going to go out on strike,’ because the laws don’t allow that,” he said.
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