No Timeline Has Been Established For Such A Labor Action

As the busy summer travel season begins, Frontier Airlines pilots are cautioning customers that the threat of a strike at the airline is a very real possibility until management agrees to pay pilots in line with industry peers.

ALPA said in a news release that after more than two years of unproductive negotiations, pilots have asked to be released from federal mediation. If approved by the National Mediation Board, it could start a 30-day cooling-off period, after which pilots could strike. Last year, 100% of the pilot group voted in favor of authorizing a legal strike.

The last major US pilot strike was in June 2010, when Spirit Airlines pilots went on strike for five days, stranding thousands of passengers and disrupting untold vacations. At the time, Spirit was owned by the same equity firm that now owns Frontier.

“While Frontier is opening many new markets this summer, they are failing to tell their new customers that there is serious labor unrest currently at the airline,” Smith continued. “We are 100 percent ready to strike, just like the Spirit Airlines pilots were in 2010. They had to strike to achieve their goals then after they were released to do so by the NMB, and we’re fully prepared to do the same now.”

Frontier pilots are the lowest-paid major airline pilots in North America, earning an average of 40 percent less than their peers. They are the last pilots in the United States still working under a bankruptcy-era contract.

“We sacrificed millions of dollars in pay and other concessions to keep the airline flying back in 2011. Now that Frontier is one of the most profitable airlines in the country, they’re turning their back on us,” Smith continued. “Frontier may be a discount airline, but we refuse to work for discount pay rates and benefits.”

(Source: ALPA news release)

FMI: www.alpa.org