CWA-AFA · How Negotiating Committees and Staff Negotiators Work

Overview

CWA-AFA bargaining service is delivered through more than one layer. The airline-facing negotiating committee is selected at the carrier level, but part of the bargaining support structure is supplied by the CWA-AFA International Office through its staff-negotiator pool. That means some of the work that flight attendants experience as local or carrier-level representation may be funded and reported upstream at the CWA-AFA sector layer rather than inside a carrier MEC or LEC filing.

This page explains how the committee is chosen, how the staff-negotiator pool works, how those roles interact, and where compensation is visible in public reporting. Use it together with the CWA-AFA financial-transparency page and the carrier-by-carrier filing directory.

How the Negotiating Committee Is Chosen

Under Section VI of the CWA-AFA Policy Manual, the Master Executive Council selects the Negotiating Committee from among active members in good standing. The committee remains active until an agreement is concluded and until the next committee is selected. The MEC may replace members by majority vote and may fill vacancies if a member resigns.

1 to 149 active members: one committee member plus the MEC President.
150 to 1200 active members: two committee members plus the MEC President.
More than 1200 active members: three committee members plus the MEC President.

If the MEC wants a larger committee, it may petition the International President. The committee is expected to include prior bargaining experience where practicable.

How the CWA-AFA Staff-Negotiator Pool Works

The CWA-AFA International Office maintains a pool of Staff Negotiators. Under the Policy Manual, that pool may include labor relations associates, active flight attendants with negotiating experience, assistants to the International President if qualified, and CWA-AFA staff attorneys.

No less than four months before an amendable date, or when the opener is drafted if earlier, the International President is to provide a list of staff negotiators who are available and willing to serve. The MEC, with the concurrence of the Negotiating Committee, has the sole authority to select the Staff Negotiator, determine that individual’s duties, and remove that individual from the airline if warranted.

The key structural point is that the carrier does not simply get whichever CWA-AFA professional is centrally assigned. The MEC selects from a CWA-AFA pool, but the pool itself is maintained upstream at the International Office.

How the Committee and Staff Negotiator Work Together

The Negotiating Committee, with the advice of the Staff Negotiator, has authority to conclude an agreement subject to the union’s ratification rules. The Policy Manual also provides for joint work on communication planning, contract implementation, education, recordkeeping, and post-ratification follow-up.

Before bargaining: committee and MEC develop communications and opener strategy.
During bargaining: committee leads airline-facing bargaining with advice and operational support from the staff negotiator.
After ratification: staffing permitting, the staff negotiator remains assigned to the property with the committee and staff attorney through post-ratification wrap-up.

The public-facing lesson is that bargaining support is not just the visible elected committee. It also includes upstream CWA-AFA personnel, legal support, drafting support, and post-ratification work.

How Compensation Appears in Public Reporting

Public compensation for professional bargaining staff is usually most visible on the CWA-AFA sector LM-2, especially Schedule 12 for employees, not in a carrier MEC or LEC LM-3 or LM-4. DOL instructions for LM-2 Schedule 12 say Column C identifies any affiliate that paid salary, allowances, or expenses on behalf of a listed employee, but the report still presents the employee through the reporting union’s own schedule rather than as a clean carrier-by-carrier cost ledger.

For officer-negotiators, DOL instructions for LM-3 say lost time devoted to union activity is included in Item 24, Column D for officers. That means an elected union officer who also performs bargaining work may show up as a single officer-compensation line rather than as a separate officer line plus a distinct negotiator line.

A separate “negotiator salary” line is therefore not required for bargaining service to exist. In many cases, the public trail aggregates that value into officer disbursements, employee disbursements, or upstream CWA-AFA sector-level compensation.

How to Read Officer-Negotiator Overlap

Some carrier negotiating teams include elected officers who are already compensated for union work through officer disbursements, release-time reimbursement, lost-time reimbursement, or employer-paid union leave arrangements. Public LM reports do not always isolate those streams into one tidy bargaining bucket.

Visible officer compensation: usually appears on the carrier MEC or LEC filing if the person is an officer of that reporting body.
Visible professional staff compensation: usually appears at the CWA-AFA sector LM-2 layer.
Potentially under-visible value: employer-paid no-docking or leave arrangements, and some indirect travel or support costs.

Readers should therefore be careful about claiming “double pay” unless the filing trail distinctly shows two separate compensation streams. Public LM reporting often proves overlap of roles more easily than it proves a second, separately paid salary for bargaining work.

Carrier Examples

Air Wisconsin

Air Wisconsin identifies Peter Swanson as its current Staff Negotiator. Air Wisconsin describes him as a CWA-AFA Senior Staff Attorney whose regional-carrier responsibility includes representing MECs. That is a good example of how a carrier can receive real bargaining support from an upstream CWA-AFA staff resource even when the carrier’s own LM filing does not show a separate negotiator-pay line.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska bargaining materials identify Paula Mastrangelo as the current CWA-AFA Senior Staff Negotiator assigned to Alaska. Alaska’s bargaining pages describe the CWA-AFA Collective Bargaining Department as a professional support layer that works with the elected committee through the bargaining process.

How to Use These Examples

On the carrier-by-carrier financial page, the practical question is not merely whether a carrier MEC or LEC filing shows a line labeled “negotiator.” The more important question is where the bargaining service is visible: at the carrier MEC, at the LEC, at the CWA-AFA sector LM-2, or only indirectly through release-time language and committee structure.

How to Read This Page with the Financial Transparency Page

Use the CWA-AFA sector LM-2 to identify sector-level allocations and professional staff compensation that may support a carrier.
Use carrier MEC and LEC filings to identify visible airline-specific and local-level disbursements.
Do not assume silence means no service when bargaining support may be recorded upstream or through aggregated officer and employee lines.
Do not assume every visible dollar is local service unless the filing trail shows that the money reached the member-facing level.