United Airlines Pilots Will Vote To Authorize A Strike

What does a strike vote really mean?

This strike vote is a bargaining tool, plain and simple, and nothing more. United pilots have been negotiating for a new contract for years. It’s a great time for pilots to be negotiating new contracts, given the huge demand for travel, combined with the pilot shortage. Of course pilots want to negotiate these contracts at the optimal time, since they’re valid for several years.

Among the “big three” US carriers, Delta pilots negotiated an industry leading contract, worth over $7 billion over the course of four years. As you’d expect, pilots at American and United want a similar contract as well. American pilots successfully negotiated that, and now United pilots are going through that process.

United’s pilots union leadership has stated that

United Airlines’ pilots union leadership has voted to authorize a strike vote. However, don’t worry, as it’s a near guarantee that a strike won’t actually happen.

United pilots union authorizes a strike vote

The union leadership representing United pilots has just decided to authorize a strike vote. Specifically, the Master Executive Council (MEC) of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has just wrapped up a two day special meeting, during which board members unanimously voted to authorize a strike vote.

That means United’s roughly 14,000 pilots will shortly be voting on whether or not to authorize a strike. It’s a near guarantee that the turnout will be close to 100%, and that nearly 100% of pilots will vote to authorize a strike.

So while we’ll hear a lot in the media in the coming days about United pilots and a strike vote, the reality is that there almost certainly won’t be a strike, and it most definitely won’t be in the next couple of months. Just because pilots vote in favor of a strike authorization doesn’t mean they’ll actually go on strike.

Rather, United management and the union representing pilots have to follow the procedures of the Railway Labor Act, which includes going to the National Mediation Board, in hopes of coming to a resolution. A strike would only (eventually) be permitted if that process fails. Even then it wouldn’t be imminent, as there would first be a 30-day cooling off period before a strike could occur.

The reality is that strikes don’t happen often at airlines in the United States, and we haven’t seen one in over a decade. Of course that’s not to say it couldn’t happen in the future. Just for context:

• Alaska pilots voted in favor of a strike in May 2022, and then voted in favor a new contract in October 2022
• Delta pilots voted in favor of a strike in October 2022, and then voted in favor of a new industry-leading contract in March 2023
• American pilots voted in favor of a strike in April 2023, and now have an agreement in principle that union members are voting on

What does a strike vote really mean?

This strike vote is a bargaining tool, plain and simple, and nothing more. United pilots have been negotiating for a new contract for years. It’s a great time for pilots to be negotiating new contracts, given the huge demand for travel, combined with the pilot shortage. Of course pilots want to negotiate these contracts at the optimal time, since they’re valid for several years.

Among the “big three” US carriers, Delta pilots negotiated an industry leading contract, worth over $7 billion over the course of four years. As you’d expect, pilots at American and United want a similar contract as well. American pilots successfully negotiated that, and now United pilots are going through that process.

United’s pilots union leadership has stated that United pilots want better pay than Delta pilots, with similar quality of life improvements. Admittedly that’s probably just a negotiation technique, and I imagine that United pilots will end up with a similar contract to what Delta pilots have.

Ultimately these strike authorization votes aren’t about actually striking, as much as they’re about strategically putting pressure on management to get a deal done. That very much seems like the motive here as well, and it’s exactly what we’ve also seen at Alaska, Delta, and American. Expect members to vote in favor of a strike, and then expect a contract to be ratified in the coming months.

Bottom line

United Airlines’ pilots union leadership has voted to authorize a strike vote. Now pilots will vote on whether or not they want to go on strike, and you can expect that there will be close to 100% turnout, with close to 100% of pilots voting in favor of a strike.

However, this doesn’t actually mean much for passengers. The odds of United pilots going on strike is close to zero. Rather this just seems to be one of the steps to ratifying a contract nowadays.

What do you make of the upcoming strike authorization vote?