Minnesota Based Delta Airlines Finally Going to Pay Flight Attendants for Boarding

170,000 Passengers Complained, So Delta Said Fine, We'll Pay Flight Attendants

Minnesota-based Delta Airlines says starting June 2, 2022, it will start paying the cabin crew during the boarding period (believe it or not, a first for a major U.S. airline).

How Much Pay Does That Mean for The Crew?

It is hard to say exactly what the new boarding pay will mean to each member of the cabin crew, but according to a story in USA Today, the rate of pay during boarding is 50% of regular pay rates. That could mean their pay could increase by a few thousand a year. It comes on top of the 4% raise Delta gave them last month.

Why Is Paying Flight Attenandts Now A Thing?

The boarding pay has come up for two likely reasons. First, flight attendants are not unionized at Delta. The Association of Flight Attendants says they're responsible for the boarding pay because they've been trying hard to unionize Delta flight attendants and this pushed Delta into acting.

It could also be due to an online petition that reads in part:

Flight attendants' schedules were originally built off of railroad schedules. Currently, there are no airlines in North America that compensate flight attendants for boarding. We only get clocked for our flight times. When the pilots pull the breaks. Not when we have customers on board or delays or mechanicals. Even though we are required by the FAA to complete specific job-related safety procedures and interact with customers. (SOURCE)

As of this writing, nearly 170,000 signatures are on the petition.

Or maybe it's a combination of the two or something else entirely.

As always, if you have a comment, complaint, or concern about something I wrote here, please let me know: james.rabe@townsquaremedia.com

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