Horizon / AFA Mediation Full-Year Review

Key Takeaways (2025)

• United Flight Attendants entered 2025 still in NMB mediation after filing for federal mediation in 2023, with no raises since 2020 and pay lagging key industry peers.
• A Tentative Agreement (TA) was reached in May 2025 that featured substantial first-year economic improvements, including higher base pay, retro pay, and boarding pay.
• On July 29, 2025, Flight Attendants rejected the TA by a wide margin, with very high turnout, sending the dispute back into mediation with a clear directive to address unresolved quality-of-life and work-rule issues.
• Through the fall, AFA pivoted toward a “TA2” strategy that focuses on targeted fixes—particularly scheduling, reserve rules, hotels, and benefits—rather than a wholesale rewrite of the economic framework.
• By late 2025, AFA had presented a focused package of proposals to United management, with additional mediation/bargaining dates scheduled into late 2025 and early 2026.
• Through year-end 2025, negotiations remained active and structured under the Railway Labor Act, with no release from mediation and no strike deadline in play.

Background & Context

United Flight Attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), filed for federal mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB) in 2023 after several years of stagnant pay and mounting frustration over scheduling, hotels, and quality-of-life issues. Under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), mediation is a formal but non-binding process—any agreement must still be voluntarily reached by the parties and ratified by the membership.

By late 2024, the dispute was docketed at the NMB and a mediator assigned. Through 2024 and into early 2025, AFA relied on a mix of mediated sessions, direct bargaining, “from the table” updates, and system-wide mobilization to push toward an agreement that could gain majority support across a large and diverse Flight Attendant group.

Phase 1 – Mediation Builds Toward a Tentative Agreement (Jan–May 2025)

In early 2025, mediation and direct bargaining intensified. AFA’s public communications emphasized several core goals:

• Significant base pay increases designed to deliver industry-competitive, if not industry-leading, top-of-scale rates.
• Compensation for more of Flight Attendants’ on-duty time, including boarding and ground time that had historically gone unpaid.
• Improved scheduling rules, limits on excessive sit time, and stronger protections around redeye operations, crew rest, and reserve life.
• Stronger contract language on hotels, improved benefits, and better long-term retirement security.

On May 23, 2025, AFA and United announced a Tentative Agreement covering roughly 28,000 United Flight Attendants. Public statements from both AFA and United characterized the deal as “industry-leading” on pay, with meaningful retroactive compensation and new boarding pay provisions. Aviation and business media framed the TA as aiming to bring United cabin crew broadly in line with major-industry peers on headline economics.

Phase 2 – Ratification Campaign and Member Concerns (May–July 2025)

Following the announcement of the TA, AFA launched an intensive ratification campaign, including roadshows, virtual meetings, FAQs and detailed summaries. These materials highlighted wage increases, boarding pay, the retro pay structure, scheduling provisions, hotel language, and proposed changes to benefits and retirement.

Member feedback, however, revealed significant concern in several areas:

• Whether the TA adequately addressed long sit times and unpaid ground time between segments.
• The treatment of redeye flying, including the stacking of multiple redeyes and the impact on rest and safety.
• Reserve life, including Reserve Availability Periods (RAPs), scheduling predictability, and the ability to pick up additional flying on days off.
• Benefit thresholds, such as the 480-hour requirement for employer-subsidized health care, and whether these rules were appropriately updated.
• Whether the economic framework fully reflected years of inflation and the extended time spent under an amendable agreement.

Voting on the TA ran through July and was supported by substantial communications from both the union and the company, as well as significant discussion and analysis from industry observers.

Phase 3 – TA Rejected, Mediation Re-Centers the Dispute (Late July–August 2025)

On July 29, 2025, United Flight Attendants voted to reject the Tentative Agreement. Turnout was exceptionally high, and a strong majority voted “No,” sending a clear message to the Master Executive Council (MEC) and negotiating committee.

AFA framed the result as democracy in action and emphasized that, while the TA delivered meaningful economic gains, members were unconvinced that the package fully met their expectations for pay, scheduling, and quality-of-life improvements.

By early August, the United MEC outlined a plan to return to the bargaining table with United management, supported by the NMB mediator. Rather than immediately seeking release from mediation, the union signaled its intent to continue working within the RLA framework to secure a revised agreement that could be ratified.

Phase 4 – Reset with the Mediator and New Dates (September–October 2025)

In September, AFA and United met with the federal mediator to plan next steps after the TA’s rejection. Subsequent union updates reported that new mediation and bargaining dates had been secured and adjusted as the parties sought to maintain momentum.

Through this period, AFA and outside commentators continued to stress that United Flight Attendants remained behind important comparators on total compensation and that members expected an agreement that combined pay, boarding pay, and improved work rules.

Phase 5 – Targeted Proposals for a Revised TA (TA2) (Oct–Nov 2025)

In late October 2025, AFA’s negotiating committee met with United management to begin structured work on a revised Tentative Agreement (“TA2”). Union updates described this phase as the start of a targeted, problem-solving effort aimed at fixing the issues that drove the “No” vote while preserving core economic gains from the original TA.

AFA described a focused package of proposals that included:

• Scheduling improvements – sit-time concepts, stronger protections around redeye flying, and improved notification and duty-life provisions.
• Reserve issues – refinement of Reserve Availability Periods (RAPs), how they can be used by the company, and additional flexibility for reserves.
• Hotels and lodging – more explicit contract language around hotel standards and compliance expectations.
• Benefits and retirement – concepts designed to reduce friction around benefit thresholds and improve long-term security.
• Economic issues – AFA indicated that additional economic proposals could be advanced in later sessions as talks matured.

By year-end, additional bargaining and/or mediation dates were scheduled into late 2025 and early 2026, providing an observable cadence for continued talks under NMB oversight.

Status at Year-End 2025

By the close of 2025, the United / AFA dispute remained firmly within the Railway Labor Act mediation framework:

• The first Tentative Agreement has been rejected, but its economic structure—base pay increases, boarding pay, and retro pay—remains a likely baseline for any TA2.
• No release from mediation has been requested or granted, and there is no strike deadline in effect.
• The parties have completed initial post-rejection bargaining focused on targeted issues, with additional sessions scheduled.
• AFA’s strategy is centered on improvements in scheduling, reserve life, hotels, benefits, and enforcement language while defending economic gains already achieved in TA1.
• Management resistance to expanding total economic cost remains a key constraint shaping the likely TA2 pathway.

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