United / AFA Mediation Year-to-Date Review

Key Takeaways (YTD 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 early November, AFA had presented a focused package of proposals to United management, with additional mediation/bargaining dates scheduled into December 2025 and early 2026.
• As of the week ending November 14, 2025, negotiations remain 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. Media coverage focused on ongoing concerns about pay for all hours worked, schedule flexibility, and work rules, even in the face of significant wage increases and retro pay.

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)

On September 15, AFA and United met with the federal mediator to plan next steps after the TA’s rejection. A union update the following day reported that new mediation and bargaining dates had been secured. While additional sessions were initially expected to occur later in the year, some dates were moved forward into late October as the parties sought to maintain momentum.

In an October 3 update, AFA noted that bargaining scheduled for October 29–31 would proceed despite a federal government shutdown, even if the mediator’s ability to attend in person was limited. United agreed to continue negotiations in the mediator’s absence, a notable shift from earlier insistence on mediator-chaired sessions.

Throughout this period, AFA and outside commentators continued to stress that United Flight Attendants remained behind important comparators on total compensation and that members expected a “true industry-leading” agreement that combined pay, boarding pay, and improved work rules.

Phase 5 – Targeted Proposals for a Revised TA (TA2) (Oct 29–Nov 14, 2025)

From October 29–31, 2025, AFA’s negotiating committee met with United management to begin structured work on a revised Tentative Agreement (“TA2”). A November 3 update described this session as the start of a targeted, problem-solving phase aimed at fixing the issues that drove the “No” vote while preserving the core economic gains in the original TA.

According to that update, AFA presented a focused package of proposals that included:

• Scheduling improvements – a sit-time “rig” to compensate for long ground time between segments and incentivize more efficient pairings; clearer protections around redeye flying; and limits on requirements to check company systems during layovers and after flight segments, along with improved notification rules.
• Reserve issues – refinement of Reserve Availability Periods (RAPs), how they can be used by the company, and additional flexibility for reserves to pick up on days off, building on reserve changes from the first TA.
• Hotels and lodging – more explicit contract language around hotel standards (including quality, location, and alignment with pilot hotel lists), reflecting member concerns that hotel provisions in TA1 needed further strengthening.
• Benefits and retirement – concepts such as a Retiree Health Care Reimbursement Account (RHRA) funded in part by unused sick leave to help bridge healthcare costs, and efforts to address the 480-hour threshold for employer-subsidized healthcare.
• Economic issues – AFA indicated that full economic proposals (rates, retro structure, profit-sharing) would be presented in subsequent sessions, consistent with standard practice of aligning final economic asks with up-to-date industry and company conditions.

The November 3 update characterized the October session as productive and noted that both parties appeared committed to reaching an agreement. At the same time, AFA cautioned that management remained resistant to significantly expanding the overall economic value of the deal. In that context, a realistic TA2 path likely involves targeted improvements and reallocations within a similar economic framework rather than a dramatic increase in total cost.

As of mid-November, additional bargaining and/or mediation dates have been set for December 9–12, 2025 and into early 2026, providing a defined schedule for continued talks under NMB oversight.

Status as of Week Ending November 14, 2025

Through the week ending November 14, 2025, the United / AFA dispute remains 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 the most 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 their first post-rejection bargaining session focused on targeted issues, with additional sessions scheduled.
• AFA’s strategy is now centered on winning specific improvements in scheduling, reserve life, hotels, benefits, and enforcement language, while defending core economic gains already secured in TA1.
• Management appears resistant to substantially expanding the overall economic total of the agreement, creating tension between pattern-bargaining realities and member expectations for a “true industry-leading” deal.

Practically, Flight Attendants head into the holiday period with no new ratified contract in place, but with a clear roadmap of future bargaining/mediation dates and heightened attention from both the industry and the broader labor community.