JetBlue floor operations workers seek out union vote, important labor team suggests

A major airline union said Friday that it has ample assistance among JetBlue Airways’ around 3,000 fleet assistance team to look for a unionization vote, in the most recent transfer to manage staff.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Staff claimed it will file an application for a union vote with the Nationwide Mediation Board. The perform team involves baggage handlers and other floor functions workforce.

A vote could produce the third key operate group at the New York-primarily based airline to unionize. JetBlue’s pilots and flight attendants are currently unionized. It would arrive during a wave of union votes across corporations from Amazon to Starbucks.

A vote could also just take area whilst JetBlue is in the approach of striving to acquire spending budget airline Spirit Airways, wherever additional than 80% of workers are represented by unions, when compared with JetBlue’s 46%, according to annual corporation filings.

“The IAM has sufficient desire among the JetBlue Fleet Service workers to conduct a union illustration election,” the union reported in a statement.

JetBlue did not quickly remark on the IAM’s statement.

Most key airline staff are already mainly represented by unions, though some carriers like JetBlue are considerably less so than some opponents.

Delta Air Traces is the major U.S. carrier whose workers are not mostly unionized, nevertheless the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA in 2019 introduced a union generate of the Atlanta-primarily based carrier’s flight attendants. Flight attendants had formerly rejected unionization.