Flight attendants union blasts Spirit Airlines' pay proposal as insulting, says workers would make 'far below' JetBlue

  • Spirit Airlines' flight attendants union is currently in contract negotiations.

  • The union called management's latest pay proposal insulting.

  • In April, Spirit flight attendants around the US picketed after the airline canceled flights.

A union representing Spirit flight attendants blasted the airline's latest pay proposal as "Spirit weak" as discussions around a potential new contract continue.

After months of negotiations, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union leadership at Spirit Airlines received management's final pay proposal a few weeks ago at a meeting in Fort Lauderdale. AWA-CWA represents flight attendants in the US from different airlines, including Spirit.

"These rates (mostly) come in just pennies above what our colleagues at Frontier are earning and still far below those of our possible future coworkers at JetBlue," the AFA negotiations committee for Spirit said in a negotiations update letter that was sent on Saturday.

Spirit Airlines did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment ahead of publication.

The negotiations committee added that a lot of the proposed wage increases go toward new flight attendants who are in their first six months working at the company.

"Just to be clear, no one who is currently working as a Spirit Flight Attendant will ever see these '1st Six Mos.' rates…" the committee said, adding that by the time the collective bargaining agreement is done, everyone currently in the bargaining process will have passed the six months of employment mark.

While entry-level flight attendants would get around a 21% raise, flight attendants who have spent a few years at Spirit would only see a 5% increase, according to a chart on the negotiations update letter.

The committee said in case flight attendants aren't "insulted enough by the Spirit Weak compensation offer," another part of the the company's proposal is getting rid of schedule integrity, which means airlines would be able to assign a flight attendant to fly anywhere anytime up to 36 times a year like a reserve flight attendant.

It also added that management wants to increase the benefits threshold to 720 block hours, up from 432 block hours. Block time is measured from when the aircraft closes its door to leave the gate, to the time it arrives at the gate of its destination. How much a flight attendant is paid is based on this time.

In the last contact with its pilots, the committee wrote that Spirit gave pilots a 44% wage increase in exchange for schedule integrity. Meanwhile, flight attendants are only being offered an average raise of 7%, according to hte letter, which the committee pointed out doesn't meet the current cost-of-living increases.

Spirit Airlines flight attendants in Orlando, Dallas, and Las Vegas picketed in April after the airline cancelled over 30% of its flights because of weather, which left flight attendants stranded. A statement from the AFA about the pickets said Spirit flight attendants "will not be silent and standby while Spirit Airlines continues to violate their employee contracts, leaving them on duty for 20+ hours after flight cancellations and on hold with the company for hours."

The flight attendants union and Spirit Airlines management will be back in negotiations on September 27.

"Spirit Flight Attendants have been through it over the last several years," Spirit AFA president Jason Kachenmeister told Insider in a statement. "We're expecting more. We expect Spirit management to return to the table next week, following their employee appreciation week, and be prepared to put real money behind their 'appreciation.'"

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