Unions Pressure Airlines to Provide Higher Wages for Employees

It appears 2020 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for relationships between U.S. airlines and some of its labor unions.

For a 10th consecutive year, U.S. carriers will turn a profit in 2019. But there are more than 120,000 unionized airline workers seeking a nice big piece of that profit pie.

That includes workers from pilots to catering.

“If they don’t come to a deal, we could potentially see them strike,” said Heidi Chung of Yahoo! Finance. “That would be a huge, huge issue.”

Chung said it’s about a better pay wage, but it’s also about airlines stopping – or severely cutting back on – the process of outsourcing some of its jobs.

“It’s about mechanics on these airlines who are saying stop putting our jobs into international places. We need our jobs here, and if you take those jobs away from us it’s also an issue,” Chung said. “There are a lot of moving parts.”

Right now, a proposal is on the table from the unions for a three-year deal with 16 percent raises over that time.