After nearly five years of collective bargaining, Sun Country Airlines flight attendants have authorized a strike to increase pressure on the Minneapolis-based airline and speed up the process.
The Teamsters Local 120 union, which represents about 560 Sun Country flight attendants, said Thursday that 99 percent of eligible flight attendants voted in favor of the strike.
“We voted to strike for one simple reason,” Tanya DeVito, a flight attendant and member of the union’s bargaining committee, said in a statement. “Sun Country is dragging out the bargaining process and we’re fed up. We’re fighting for the contract we deserve.”
The flight attendants work under a 2014 contract that was amended in 2016. The airline and the union have been negotiating a new contract since 2019, when the collective agreement could be completely amended. In 2023, the flight attendants rejected a provisional agreement, with 96% of the vote against.
Because these are airlines, federal law requires several steps to be completed before a strike can take place, including this week’s authorization vote. The union must also notify the public and seek approval from the federal government.
Union officials had previously said that wages for flight attendants at Sun Country start at $21.53 an hour and can go up to $53.56, but only for those with more than 30 years of experience. However, the airline’s top pay for flight attendants is still 19 percent lower than at other low-cost carriers such as Frontier and Spirit Airlines, union officials said.
“We expect that a solid economic package will be presented to us at the mediation meeting in September, or we will take this to the next level,” DeVito said.
