How can a union help AirTran CrewMembers?

By uniting with others, as did the pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics at AirTran, crew members will have a stronger voice on the job and in your community — and each CrewMember can help create a better future for yourself and all Americans.

Here are five good reasons to join fellow CrewMembers at AirTran in forming a crew member union:

Working together, crew members have the strength to win better wages, affordable health care, a secure retirement, and safer workplaces.

The “union advantage” is substantial for crew members.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, union members are much more likely to have health benefits and pensions.
Union membership helps raise CrewMember pay. Throughout the nation’s workforce, white male union workers earn 23 percent more than nonunion white male workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary work were $967 in 2008, compared with $789 for their nonunion counterparts.
The union wage benefit is even greater for women and workers of color. Union women earn 32 percent more than nonunion women, African American union members earn 28 percent more than their nonunion counterparts, for Latino workers, the union advantage equals 43 percent.
In addition to helping crew members win better wages and benefits, unions help all workers by giving working families a stronger voice in our communities, in the political arena, and in the global economy.
By joining together, CrewMembers can build the strength to hold elected officials accountable. CrewMembers can stop the “race to the bottom” by employers who cut wages and benefits in favor of bigger profits. CrewMembers can win improvements such as affordable, quality health care for all.