Mesa could end long labor dispute with better pay for flight attendants

A United Express flight operated by Mesa Airlines takes off from Bush Intercontinental Airport. A United Express flight operated by Mesa Airlines takes off from Bush Intercontinental Airport. Photo: Bill Montgomery Photo: Bill Montgomery Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Mesa could end long labor dispute with better pay for flight attendants 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Flight attendants at Mesa Airlines, including about 400 working on United Express flights in Houston, struck a deal with management on Friday that would offer pay five times greater than the deal union members voted down about a year ago.

The new tentative agreement would also increase 401(k) matching for many union members, offer greater per diem for food expenses when traveling and provide a host of other perks.

"It has been a long time coming," said Heather Stevenson, union president for Mesa, "and this tentative agreement versus our current contract has many great things for our flight attendants that we weren't able to get before in negotiations."

The announcement follows five years of fraught labor negotiations. Flight attendants voted down a previous tentative agreement about a year ago, and they authorized a strike if mediation efforts were to reach an impasse.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA is recommending union members approve the agreement when voting in September. Stevenson called the agreement "dramatically better" than the one flight attendants voted down.

And it addresses one of the union's biggest concerns with their current contract: Mesa flight attendant wages compared with other regional airlines. Stevenson previously said that Mesa flight attendants make between $13,000 and $36,000 a year, with most salaries on the lower end of that range. That's 15 percent to 20 percent less than flight attendants at other regional airlines, she said.

Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and CEO of Mesa, said that the airline was constrained by long-term agreements signed with United Airlines and American Airlines. Mesa was also affected by recent legislation that boosted the flying time pilots are required to have before they can be hired in commercial aviation. This has increased total compensation for first officers by close to 200 percent, Ornstein said.

He was happy that both sides "worked together cooperatively and productively" to reach Friday's deal, and he praised the company's flight attendants for receiving high customer satisfaction scores from United and American.

Phoenix-based Mesa Airlines operates as American Eagle from hubs in Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth and as United Express from Washington Dulles and Houston. It has about 1,100 flight attendants, with Houston its largest base. United Airlines declined to comment.

"We think it was worth the wait in the sense that it's a deal that works for the flight attendants, we hope, and works for the company," Ornstein said Friday.

Mesa's pilots ratified their own four-year contract in July. If the flight attendants follow suit, Mesa will have new contracts for both of its union-represented labor groups.

"We have plans moving forward for the company, and getting this settled is an important part of our plan going forward," he said.