Status This Week
CWA-AFA published its Session 19 account on September 14. The Joint Negotiating Committee met management September 8–10 in Seattle, received company responses on Grievance Procedures and Training, received a new management proposal on Performance Based Pay and Retirement, and delivered a union response that included legacy retiree pass-privilege and retiree-health proposals. The update did not identify a new tentative agreement.
JCBA timing: As of 2026.09.18, 730 days—exactly 2 years—had elapsed since the transaction closed on 2024.09.18; 561 days—1 year, 6 months and 12 days—since the NMB single-transportation-system finding on 2025.03.06; 549 days—1 year and 6 months—since the first JCBA bargaining session on 2025.03.18; and 525 days—1 year, 5 months and 7 days—since CWA-AFA certification on 2025.04.11.
Process Signals
- The committee said the two established contracts contain materially different operations and work rules and that most remaining sections are complex. The Alaska agreement remains the language base, while the committee says it is reviewing both agreements to incorporate and amend their strongest elements.
- The parties will receive NMB-led interest-based bargaining training October 14–15 and identified selected difficult subjects for that approach. The next bargaining session is scheduled for October 26–28, forty-six days after the September session ended.
- This is not ordinary Section 6 bargaining because the two contracts are not amendable. It is the creation of one agreement from two existing contracts, so elapsed time must be evaluated alongside the breadth of the integration and the quality of preserved provisions.
CrewSignal Assessment
Session 19 shows substantive exchange and the deployment of a senior staff negotiator and NMB-supported process tools, but it did not produce a publicly identified tentative section. At 549 days since joint bargaining began, Alaska + Hawaiian is now a meaningful live comparison for United Flight Attendants evaluating how long a same-union merger JCBA takes.
The comparison must remain disciplined. Continental + United involved a full integration and took years; Republic + Mesa used an expedited limited bridge agreement. Alaska + Hawaiian should be judged on both speed and substance: section completion, preservation of stronger language, economic convergence, seniority implementation, ratification and the time to actual operational integration.
Notable Public References
- National Mediation Board Weekly Activity Report, September 14–18, 2026 — View →
- Alaska + Hawaiian Joint Negotiating Committee — View →
- Joint Contract Negotiations Session 19, September 2026 — View →
- Joint Contract Negotiations Session 1, March 2025 — View →
- Understanding Alaska + Hawaiian JCBA Negotiations — View →
- Alaska + Hawaiian Merger & Integration Reports — View →
- Alaska + Hawaiian Contract Comparison — View →
- Flight Attendant JCBA Timeline Comparison — View →