United Airlines pilot in hot water over comments about flight attendants | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Over the last half-decade, flight attendants at most major airlines have engaged in job action and other negotiations for better pay and work conditions.

On July 29, a union representing flight attendants working for United Airlines (UAL) voted down a contract that would give the workers an immediate pay raise of 27% and a cumulative increase of 45% over the next five years.

With 71% of the union members voting not to ratify an agreement reached last May, an Association of Flight Attendants-CWA statement reveals the majority of its 28,000 members “voted to send a strong message to United Airlines management by rejecting a tentative agreement that didn’t go far enough to address the years of sacrifice and hard work to make the airline the success it is today.”

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‘Love it, now they will get nothing’: United Airlines pilot on flight attendants

United issued a formal statement saying that while rejecting the agreement “will result in a delay,” the airline will “remain focused” on reaching a resolution.

But at least one of the carrier’s pilots had few qualms about making his dissatisfaction known online.

In a since-deleted post on the Aero Crew News Facebook page, Captain John Randolph wrote “Love it, now they will get nothing” while adding that the flight attendants “all want pilot pay!”

“Kirby should go to a local university where they are all a dime a dozen!!!” Randolph wrote further in reference to United CEO Scott Kirby.

Although Randolph deleted the comment as it started receiving replies from others in the industry, it quickly went viral, alongside the photo of himself in his United uniform that he posted on the same account used to make the comments.

A Change.org petition calling for an investigation into Randolph’s comments, seen as contradicting United’s policy of mutual collaboration and respect, gathered over 2,000 signatures by Aug. 1.

United Airlines has engaged in salary negotiations with both its pilots and flight attendants in recent years.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

‘Deeply offensive, publicly demeaning’: Petition against pilot’s comments also goes viral

“We are submitting a formal report concerning a social media post made by Captain John Randolph that is deeply offensive, publicly demeaning to fellow crew members, and in violation of company policy regarding respectful workplace conduct and social media usage,” the petition’s text reads while further accusing Randolph of fostering “a culture of division and disrespect within the flight crew community.”

In 2023, the union representing United pilots reached its own contract with its employer for a cumulative pay increase of up to 40%. Worth a combined $10 billion, the pay hike was the largest in the airline industry’s history.

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Randolph’s post also garnered online criticism from some fellow pilots expressing solidarity with members of the crew, who are often viewed as unimportant in their roles in relation to pilots.

“Not all legacy pilots think like this, some get comfortable in their bubble and lose touch with reality and what happens in the cabin,” one commenter wrote on the r/flightattendant forum on Reddit. “But I know one guy now that his meals are gonna come colder and his bathroom breaks are gonna take a little longer to set up.”