March 9, 2026

As we enter what may be the final week of negotiations (March 24th - 27th), we wanted to give you a clearer sense of where negotiations stand and what to expect going forward as we push to secure our revised Tentative Agreement. 

Last week was an intense week of bargaining as the discussion focused on the economic provisions as well as the key work rules. We made further progress on a sit rig and improved redeye provisions. While all is not final, we are confident that we will have improvements in these areas.

As for the framework, we have been clear that we need meaningful, targeted improvements, but that they could not come at the expense of existing work rules. That does not improve our overall quality of work-life. It does not benefit us to improve in one area only to remove existing contractual language in another.

Despite United corporate communication’s efforts to spin the matter, taking away PTO would limit our flexibility and was a non-starter with your negotiations team.  Likewise, we have been clear PBS will not be part of this deal as Flight Attendants have been clear on the matter. Additionally, complex PBS negotiations usually take a year in and of themselves.

While we made substantial progress on all open issues, we do not have a complete Tentative Agreement until every provision is agreed to. We have not finalized an agreement on the retro payments (which the Company calls one-time payments). This represents hundreds of millions of dollars and is a key component of this agreement. We also need to finalize the implementation letter of agreement, which will require analysis by the Company’s digital technology team. 

Retro payments, the implementation letter of agreement, along with the remaining contract provisions, will be the last items to finalize before we get a complete Tentative Agreement. We believe we can get to a Tentative Agreement at our next mediation session, March 24th - 27th.

Process-wise, if we reach a Tentative Agreement the week of March 24th in Washington DC, it will then be presented to the MEC. Our Constitution requires the MEC to determine whether to send the Tentative Agreement out to membership for ratification.

The ratification process will provide full information so Flight Attendants may make an informed decision. This will include online materials and virtual roadshows. The ratification vote would take place in May, and if ratified, the agreement would likely have an effective date at the start of the June Bid period. To be clear, we are not at a final agreement, but we are very close.

We are going to keep the pressure on and work hard to finalize the remaining details of this Tentative Agreement. Given the substantial progress towards reaching a Tentative Agreement, we have postponed the Membership Day of Action on March 19th.

We look forward to continuing the final push to obtain our Tentative Agreement. There is a lot going on in the world right now, but our focus is on getting an agreement that works for us and our futures.

In Solidarity, 

Your Negotiating Committee,
Ken Diaz, MEC President
Melinda Beal, Chairperson
Chris Bruton, Council 9 President
Randy Hatfield, Council 22 President