Call it aviation’s
version of the two-minute warning in football.
Flight attendants
at Alaska Airlines have
told management it has two weeks to come up with a plan for a new contract.
But a strike
appears unlikely as the timing just
doesn’t favor the flight attendants, even though they have already
overwhelmingly approved plans for a strike.
For one, the two
sides have yet to go through the mandatory 30-day cooling off period as per the
National Mediation Board. Secondly, the strike process takes months and will
probably carry through the end of summer travel, into the election and the
fall and winter holidays.
For instance,
flight attendants at American Airlines asked the National Mediation Board to be
released from contract negotiations after the two sides apparently hit a
stalemate. That was six
months ago.
Clearly, it can be
a long and drawn out process.
It also appears
that the union representing Alaska Airlines flight attendants is waiting for
resolutions in disputes with American and United to be resolved, perhaps to set
a bar or a barometer in negotiations.
The saga with
Alaska Airlines has
already played out for more than four months.
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